Reducing the influence of false information
By Christopher Grady
Fact checking, inoculation, nudges — how do we know what works to reduce the influence of false information? The research on this question keeps getting better and more inclusive, but sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the latest findings and learn how to translate them into action. Here are some quick takeaways with links to the supporting research.
Fact-checking alone is a limited solution for correcting false political information
Researchers and policymakers are interested in ways of reducing the influence of false information. One prominent method is 'fact-checking,' providing information to correct the false belief. A meta-analysis of 65 studies found that fact-checking was mildly effective but became more potent when paired with a coherent explanation for how and why the false rumor started. The meta-analysis cited two caveats: (1) effects were smaller for political topics, and (2) virtually all the studies in the meta-analysis were from the 'Global North.' To fill those gaps, researchers recently tested the effects of fact-checking during a Brazilian election and found that fact-checking was ineffective in that context. This research suggests that fact-checking alone is not enough to correct false political information and that education, access to media, and a tradition of fact-checking may influence the effectiveness of corrective information.
Inoculation can be an effective strategy to reduce the influence of false information
Along with fact-checking, another prominent method to reduce beliefs in false information is to ‘inoculate’ citizens against false information through awareness and media literacy campaigns. Inoculation seeks to educate and empower citizens to critically engage with news content. During a Brazilian election, researchers partnered with the largest and most influential newspaper in Brazil to provide randomly selected citizens with a free newspaper subscription and a list of eight steps for spotting fake news. After two weeks, the researchers compared those ‘treated’ citizens to ‘control’ citizens who had not received the subscription or the strategies for spotting fake news. The treatment reduced acceptance of fake news without reducing acceptance of true news or trust in the media. This research provides evidence that awareness and media literacy campaigns can reduce people’s belief in false information.
Separately, a set of seven studies analyzed the effect of inoculation on individuals’ perceptions and behaviors on social media. The researchers developed short videos to inoculate people against manipulation techniques commonly used in misinformation. They tested these videos in a lab and then partnered with YouTube to show the videos as YouTube advertisements to almost 1 million users. The videos improved people’s ability to recognize manipulation techniques, their confidence in spotting those techniques, their ability to discern trustworthy from untrustworthy content, and the quality of their social media sharing decisions. These studies suggest that psychological inoculation campaigns on social media can help prevent the spread of misinformation.
Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation sharing online
A recent study investigated an intervention intended to reduce sharing of misinformation on social media. Motivated by the idea that many people value accuracy but are distracted from considering the accuracy of online content, the intervention primed participants to think about news accuracy by asking them to assess the veracity of a non-political headline. The intervention increased the quality of news that people shared in lab experiments and in a field experiment with twitter users who had previously shared misinformation. This study challenges the popular claim that people value partisanship over accuracy and provides evidence for an attention-based intervention that social media platforms could implement to counter the spread of misinformation online.
