Elusive Effects of Misinformation and the Media's Attention To It: Evidence from Experimental and Behavioral Trace Data

Abstract

Could the media’s attention to misinformation and fake news be harmful? We examine whether the coverage of misinformation in the media, alongside untrustworthy content and partisan sites, contributes to rising erroneous beliefs and decreasing levels of trust among U.S. citizens. We test this using experimental (Study 1) and observational data (Study 2). Study 1 finds that both exposure to actual misinformation and to the coverage of misinformation have short-term but no long-term consequences for misperceptions. Study 2 shows that behaviorally tracked visits to untrustworthy sites and exposure to content covering misinformation —although relatively rare — both predict lower trust, and that visits to liberal news sites boost trust in scientists. Although the direct impact of untrustworthy sites and the coverage of misinformation on misperceptions is short-lived, it may matter more for other outcomes such as trust, which are crucial to the functioning of democracies.

Beyond Skepticism: Framing Media Literacy Tips to Promote Reliable Information

“…This result aligns with a growing body of research showing that, while well-intended and necessary, interventions against misinformation may have negative unintended consequences on true and reliable information (Van Duyn & Collier, 2019;van der Meer et al, 2023;Tandoc et al, 2018;Vraga et al, 2022). Many other interventions against misinformation were shown to increase skepticism in true news a (Hoes et al, 2023;Hameleers, 2023;Modirrousta-Galian & Higham, 2023) or decrease trust in informational institutions (e.g., the media, scientists) (Hoes et al, 2022).…”

“…Media literacy tips embrace the view of agile interventions that directly engage with the acceptance and sharing of information, employ short-form advice (Guess et al, 2020) in the form of actionable behaviors (e.g., inviting to check the source of a news story), and attitudes (e.g., stating that nonprofessional sources should not be trusted). Actionable media literacy tips typically raise awareness about misinformation (Hoes et al, 2023;van der Meer et al, 2023) and encourage people to be more mindful and skeptical of the content they come across on social media (Altay, 2022). For instance, in 2017 Facebook displayed tips to identify false news at the top of people's news feeds in 14 countries.…”

“…These strategies aim to diminish the public's tendency to believe and disseminate misinformation, and have evolved from broad regulatory approaches to more scalable individual-level interventions. However, there is a growing concern that while media literacy interventions are effective in safeguarding against misinformation, they may inadvertently escalate skepticism towards factual news (Hoes et al, 2023;Hameleers, 2023). This unintended consequence is particularly problematic in Western democracies, where the majority of online news stories people consume are genuine and originate from reliable sources (Allen et al, 2020;Guess et al, 2019;Altay et al, 2022;Acerbi et al, 2022).…”

Leveraging ChatGPT for Efficient Fact-Checking

“…Interestingly, ChatGPT seems to be more successful at accurately identifying true claims. Considering the continued prevalence of trustworthy (online) content (Acerbi, Altay, & Mercier, 2022) in contrast to increasing levels of skepticism among the public (Hoes, von Hohenberg, Gessler, Wojcieszak, & Qian, 2022) ChatGPT could be a future tool to increase the labeling of accurate rather than (only) false information. This may be a welcome addition to fact-checking organizations which -due to limited time and resources -increasingly focus on fact-checking false claims, and to social media platforms, which typically focus on flagging harmful content (Alizadeh et al, 2022).…”

Exposure to Higher Rates of False News Erodes Media Trust and Fuels Overconfidence

“…What sort of cues might achieve this broad skepticism in the media environment? Rhetorical claims about "fake news" from elected officials (Van Duyn & Collier, 2019), warnings about the prevalence of misinformation (Clayton et al, 2020;Hoes et al, 2022;van der Meer et al, 2023), educational games to help people spot manipulation techniques (Modirrousta-Galian & Higham, 2023), exposure to highly implausible statements (Ulusoy et al, 2021) or misinformation (van der Meer et al 2023), for example, appear to shift mindsets in this way, and may have unintended effects on belief in credible information. A news environment consisting primarily of false news might result in the same effect.…”