The combination of an election supercycle, geopolitical conflicts, and growing societal fragmentation has made global society more vigilant about the risks of becoming misinformed and of the potential dangers that follow that fog of disinformation.
That is one key takeaway of The Global Risks Report 2025 from the World Economic Forum (WEF). The convergence of misinformation and societal polarisation is perceived as one of the most severe risks facing global society, the report concluded.
Global leaders in the survey, while ranking state-based armed conflict and extreme weather events as the most likely causes of a material crisis in 2025, ranked misinformation and disinformation above those two when asked to rank the most severe risk impact areas over a two-year period ending in 2027. “The amount of false or misleading content to which societies are exposed continues to rise, as does the difficulty that citizens, companies, and governments face in distinguishing it from true information,” the report asserted.
The rapid spread of false information can increase polarised thinking across societies, and polarisation, in turn, can create narratives laced with disinformation. Consequently, this growing fragmentation is brewing distrust, as only 40% of respondents said that they trusted most news, the report said.
Data for the report, which surveyed more than 900 global leaders across 47 countries in academia, business, government, and other areas, was collected in September and October.
Disinformation and societal polarisation are closely intertwined with other immediate risks, including armed conflict, the report noted, as false narratives and polarised thinking can directly amplify other immediate risks and create further fragmentation.
Respondents believe state-based armed conflicts (23%), extreme weather events (14%), geoeconomic confrontation (8%), misinformation and disinformation (7%), and societal polarisation (6%) are most likely to present a material crisis on a global scale in 2025.
Climate-change impacts dominate long-term fears
Similar to the previous year, the top four severe global long-term risks (over ten years), with a slight change of order from last year’s findings, are climate-related: extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, critical change to earth systems, and natural resource shortages.
Technology concerns linked to bias
Artificial intelligence technologies fell from rank 29 to 31 in the two-year outlook, with only 2% of respondents expecting those technologies to lead to adverse outcomes in 2025. However, respondents expressed unease over cyber espionage and warfare, which ranked fifth in the short-term risks expected to affect global societies over the next two years.
“The interplay of rising misinformation and disinformation with political and societal polarisation creates greater scope for algorithmic bias,” the report said. “If human, institutional, and societal biases are not addressed, and/or best practices in modelling are neglected, the conditions will be ripe for algorithmic bias to become more prevalent.”
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