Editing Hoax (section)

==Types==
[[File:Disinformation vs Misinformation.svg|thumb|300px|Graphic showing differences between [[misinformation]], [[disinformation]], and hoax, presented for [[mw:Wikimedia Research/Showcase#November 2015|Wikimedia Research]] (2015)]]

Hoaxes vary widely in their processes of creation, propagation, and entrenchment over time. Examples include:
* [[List of scholarly publishing hoaxes|Academic hoaxes]]:
** The [[Sokal affair]]
** The [[Grievance studies affair]]
* Art-world hoaxes:
** The "Bruno Hat" art hoax, arranged in London in July 1929, involved staging a convincing public exhibition of paintings by an imaginary reclusive artist, Bruno Hat. All the perpetrators were well-educated and did not intend a fraud, as the newspapers were informed the next day. Those involved included [[Brian Howard (poet)|Brian Howard]], [[Evelyn Waugh]], [[Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne|Bryan Guinness]], [[John Banting]] and [[Thomas David Freeman-Mitford|Tom Mitford]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Leicester Galleries website on ''Bruno Hat'', accessed 28th May 2011|url=http://www.leicestergalleries.com/19th-20th-century-paintings/d/still-life-with-pears/10464|publisher=Leicestergalleries.com|access-date=2012-04-05|archive-date=7 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807155912/http://www.leicestergalleries.com/19th-20th-century-paintings/d/still-life-with-pears/10464|url-status=live}}</ref>
** ''[[Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960]]'': a 1998 art world hoax, by [[William Boyd (writer)|William Boyd]]
** [[Disumbrationism]]: a modern art hoax
** [[Pierre Brassau]]: exposing art critics to "modern paintings" made by a chimpanzee
** Ads for [[Terry_Fugate-Wilcox#Performance_art|Jean Freeman Gallery]] appeared in "[[Art in America]]" in 1970, but the [[art gallery]] and its address did not exist. It turned out to be a [[performance art]] hoax later covered in news outlets ''[[The New York Times]]'' and "[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]"
** ''[[Spectra (book)|Spectra: A Book of Poetic Experiments]]'': a modernist poetry hoax
** [[Ern Malley]], the popular but fictitious Australian poet
* [[Apocrypha]]l claims that originate as a hoax gain widespread belief among members of a culture or organisation, become entrenched as persons who believe it repeat it in [[good faith]] to others, and continue to command that belief after the hoax's originators have died or departed
* Computer [[virus hoax]]es became widespread as [[Computer virus|viruses]] themselves began to spread. A typical hoax is an email message warning recipients of a non-existent threat, usually forging quotes supposedly from authorities such as [[Microsoft]] and [[IBM]]. In most cases the [[payload (software)|payload]] is an exhortation to distribute the message to everyone in the recipient's [[Software address book|address book]]. Thus the e-mail "warning" is itself the "virus." Sometimes the hoax is more harmful, e.g., telling the recipient to seek a particular [[computer file|file]] (usually in a [[Microsoft Windows]] [[operating system]]); if the file is found, the computer is deemed to be infected unless it is deleted. In reality the file is one required by the operating system for correct functioning of the computer.
* Criminal hoax admissions, such as the case of John Samuel Humble, also known as [[Wearside Jack]].  Criminal hoax admissions divert time and money of police investigations with communications purporting to come from the actual criminal.  Once caught, hoaxers are charged under criminal codes such as [[perverting the course of justice]] and [[wasting police time]].
* [[Factoids]]
* Hoaxes formed by making minor or gradually increasing changes to a warning or other claims widely circulated for legitimate purposes
* [[List of hoaxes#Proven hoaxes of exposure|Hoax of exposure]] is a semi-comical or private [[sting operation]].  It usually encourages people to act foolishly or credulously by falling for patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality.  A related activity is [[culture jamming]]. American performance artist [[Joey Skaggs]] is renowned for orchestrating elaborate hoaxes that intentionally blur the boundaries between news and art. Notable examples include the ''Cathouse for Dogs'' (1976), a fictitious [[brothel]] for canines, and ''Portofess'' (1992), a portable [[confessional]] booth mounted on a [[Tricycle|tricycle.]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Runnells |first=Charles |title=Fake news? Meet the guy who practically invented it |url=https://www.news-press.com/story/entertainment/2017/01/22/fake-news-hoax-prank-bonita-springs-film-festival-joey-skaggs-art-of-the-prank-movie-documentary-bonita-springs-international-film-festival/96716444/ |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=The News-Press |language=en-US}}</ref>
* Hoaxes perpetrated by "scare tactics" appealing to the audience's subjectively rational belief that the expected cost of not believing the hoax (the cost if its assertions are true times the likelihood of their truth) outweighs the expected cost of believing the hoax (cost if false times likelihood of falsity), such as claims that a non-malicious but unfamiliar program on one's computer is [[malware]]
* Hoaxes perpetrated on occasions when their initiation is considered socially appropriate, such as [[April Fools' Day]]
* [[Humbug]]s
* Internet hoaxes became more common after the start of social media. Some websites have been used to hoax millions of people on the Web<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/24/how-serial-hoaxers-duped-the-internet-with-fake-4chan-threats-against-emma-watson/ |title=How serial hoaxers duped the Internet |newspaper=Washington Post |date=2014-09-24 |access-date=2014-09-24 |archive-date=14 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514002935/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/24/how-serial-hoaxers-duped-the-internet-with-fake-4chan-threats-against-emma-watson/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Paleoanthropological hoaxes, anthropologists were taken in by the "[[Piltdown Man]] discovery" that was widely believed from 1913 to 1953
* Protest hoaxes. Members of social movements and other political activists have often used hoaxes in order to draw attention to causes and undermine their opponents.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McIntyre |first=Iain |author-link=Iain McIntyre |date=2019-09-02 |title=Pranks, performances and protestivals: Public Events |url=https://commonslibrary.org/pranks-performances-and-protestivals-public-events/#Pranks_and_Hoaxes |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>
* [[List of religious hoaxes|Religious hoaxes]]
* [[List of UFO-related hoaxes|UFO hoaxes]]
* [[Urban legend]]s and rumours with a probable conscious attempt to deceive<ref name="Brunvand_194" />