A Fractional-Order Complexity Framework for Misinformation Propagation With Fact-Checking Saturation and Social Vulnerability Dynamics

Misinformation spreads through communities in ways that resemble infectious diseases, but existing mathematical models often miss three real-world complexities: People remember past information (memory effects), some folks are more easily fooled than others (vulnerability), and fact-checkers can get overwhelmed during big outbreaks (saturation). This study builds a fresh mathematical framework that puts all these pieces together using fractional calculus, a tool that naturally captures how pa...