Nekmat, E. (2020). Nudge effect of fact-check alerts: source influence and media skepticism on sharing of news misinformation in social media. Social Media+ Society, 6(1), 2056305119897322. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119897322

University of California, Berkeley

Google

This paper looked at whether or not news sources moderate the effectiveness of fact-check alerts on social media to deter news sharing. They also looked at how users' skepticism of mainstream media affected this. 

Nudge Effect of Fact-Check Alerts: Source Influence and Media Skepticism on Sharing of News Misinformation in Social Media

- "Exposure to fact-check alerts warning users of misinformation in news will lower news sharing likelihood as compared to non-exposure."
- "News from unfamiliar non-mainstream sources is less likely to be shared than news from legacy mainstream sources."
- "News source will moderate the effect of fact-check alerts, such that users’ reluctance to share news flagged for misinformation will be greater for news from an unfamiliar non-mainstream source than news from a legacy mainstream source."
- "Users’ greater reluctance to share news from an unfamiliar non-mainstream source as compared to a legacy mainstream source (H3) will be weaker when they are more skeptical of mainstream media."

Nudge Effect of Fact-Check Alerts: Source Influence and Media Skepticism on Sharing of News Misinformation in Social Media Hypotheses

- 2 x 2 experiment was used (nudge: fact-check alert vs no fact-check alert; source: mainstream news source vs non-mainstream news source)
- 1,100 responses were collected
- participants took a pre-questionaire answering questions about involvement in news issues, news sharing experience, and skepticism of media
- participants were randomly assigned to a news source (mainstream or not) that showed the same news article
- half of the participants in each group were then also randomly given a fact-check alert 
- a post-questionaire was then used to ask participants how likely they were to share the news article 

Nudge Effect of Fact-Check Alerts: Source Influence and Media Skepticism on Sharing of News Misinformation in Social Media Methods

Hypothesis 1 and 2 were supported:
- analysis (moderated model PROCESS) showed significant main effects on the likelihood of sharing news on social media from fact-check alerts and news sources 
- less likely to share news when there is a fact-check alert
less likely to share news from a non-mainstream news source than a mainstream source 

Hypothesis 3 not supported:
- sharing likelihood did not decrease at a greater rate when users were given a fact-check alert on a nonmainstream news source
- the likelihood to share news decreased more for mainstream news sources

Hypothesis 4 not supported
- no three way relationship between media skeptcisim, fact-check alert, and news source

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