The global effectiveness of fact-checking: Evidence from simultaneous experiments in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom

Ethan Porter () and Thomas J. Wood
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Ethan Porter: School of Media and Public Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052
Thomas J. Wood: Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021, vol. 118, issue 37, e2104235118

Abstract: The spread of misinformation is a global phenomenon, with implications for elections, state-sanctioned violence, and health outcomes. Yet, even though scholars have investigated the capacity of fact-checking to reduce belief in misinformation, little evidence exists on the global effectiveness of this approach. We describe fact-checking experiments conducted simultaneously in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, in which we studied whether fact-checking can durably reduce belief in misinformation. In total, we evaluated 22 fact-checks, including two that were tested in all four countries. Fact-checking reduced belief in misinformation, with most effects still apparent more than 2 wk later. A meta-analytic procedure indicates that fact-checks reduced belief in misinformation by at least 0.59 points on a 5-point scale. Exposure to misinformation, however, only increased false beliefs by less than 0.07 points on the same scale. Across continents, fact-checks reduce belief in misinformation, often durably so.

Keywords: misinformation; fact-checking; multicountry experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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