Debunking "Fake News" on Social Media: Short-Term and Longer-Term Effects of Fact Checking and Media Literacy Interventions

Lara Berger (), Anna Kerkhof (), Felix Mindl () and Johannes Münster ()
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Lara Berger: University of Cologne
Anna Kerkhof: University of Munich, ifo Institute for Economic Research, and CESifo
Felix Mindl: University of Cologne and iwp Institute for Economic Policy
Johannes Münster: University of Cologne

No 262, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: We conduct a randomized survey experiment to compare the short-term and longer-term effects of fact checking to a brief media literacy intervention. We show that the impact of fact checking is limited to the corrected fake news, whereas media literacy helps to distinguish between false and correct information more generally, both immediately and two weeks after the intervention. A plausible mechanism is that media literacy enables participants to critically evaluate social media postings, while fact checking fails to enhance their skills. Our results promote media literacy as an effective tool to fight fake news, that is cheap, scalable, and easy-to-implement.

Keywords: Covid; Facebook; fact checking; fake news; media literacy; misinformation; nutrition; social media; supplements; survey experiment; vaccine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L51 L82 Z18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 92 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-pay
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:262

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