The spread of false information on social media is a growing problem that has necessitated the development of interventions to reduce its impact. We tested the potential effectiveness of social “truth queries” — user replies that draw attention to truth — as a novel intervention for reducing the impact of false information shared on social media. Participants were shown Tweets containing false information that appeared with user replies containing truth queries (Experiments 1-3), no replies (Experiments 1-3), or user replies unrelated to truth (Experiments 2-3) and asked to judge either the truth of the information contained in the Tweet or their likelihood of sharing it. We consistently found that social truth queries reduce belief in and reported intent to share Tweets containing false information compared to no replies or replies unrelated to truth. The findings suggest the usefulness of truth queries as a simple, flexible, user-driven approach to addressing online misinformation.
In 2017, media coverage of the #MeToo movement brought attention to the pervasive problem of sexual harassment against women, highlighting several prominent American cases including Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Donald Trump. In survey experiments with nationally representative samples in the United States (N = 2,843), the Netherlands (N = 3,770), and Germany (N = 2,357), we tested how thinking about the American cases influences public opinion towards the issue across countries. As predicted, being reminded of the Weinstein, Cosby, and Trump cases increased the evaluation that sexual harassment is a serious problem in the United States. We further tested how thinking about the U.S. cases influences participants' evaluations of sexual harassment in European countries: Does it pale by comparison to the prominent U.S. cases, or do the cases increase the assessment that harassment is a problem everywhere? All samples evaluated sexual harassment in the European countries as a more serious issue when the U.S. cases were brought to mind, which is compatible with the assumption that sexual harassment is seen as a global gender issue rather than a country‐specific issue. These results provide experimental evidence that attention‐grabbing cases can shift evaluations of a policy issue within and across countries.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.