Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts

Emeric Henry, Ekaterina Zhuravskaya and Sergei Guriev

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 55-86

Abstract: During the 2019 European elections campaign, we exposed a random sample of French voting-age Facebook users to false statements by a far-right populist party. A randomly selected subgroup was also presented with fact-checking of these statements; another subgroup was offered a choice of whether to view the fact-checking. Participants could then share these statements on their Facebook pages. We show that (i) both imposed and voluntary fact-checking reduce sharing of false statements by about 45 percent, (ii) the size of the effect is similar between imposed and voluntary fact-checking, and (iii) each additional click required to share false statements substantially reduces sharing.

JEL-codes: D72 D81 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2022)
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2022)
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2022)
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2020)
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2020)
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2020)
Working Paper: Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts (2020)
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DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210037

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