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Social corrections act as a double-edged sword by reducing the perceived accuracy of false and real news in the UK, Germany, and Italy

Social corrections act as a double-edged sword by reducing the perceived accuracy of false and real news in the UK, Germany, and Italy
Social corrections act as a double-edged sword by reducing the perceived accuracy of false and real news in the UK, Germany, and Italy

Corrective or refutational posts from ordinary users on social media have the potential to improve the online information ecosystem. While initial evidence of these social corrections is promising, a better understanding of the effects across different topics, formats, and audiences is needed. In three pre-registered experiments (N = 1944 UK, N = 2467 Italy, N = 2210 Germany) where respondents completed a social media post assessment task with false and true news posts on various topics (e.g., health, climate change, technology), we find that social corrections reduce perceived accuracy of and engagement with false news posts. We also find that social corrections that flag true news as false decrease perceived accuracy of and engagement with true news posts. We did not find evidence to support moderation of these effects by correction strength, anti-expert sentiments, cognitive reflection capacities, or susceptibility to social influence. While social corrections can be effective for false news, they may also undermine belief in true news.

2731-9121
10
Stoeckel, Florian
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Stöckli, Sabrina
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Ceka, Besir
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Ricchi, Chiara
ac8312da-4714-4a1a-a06d-583817e8d561
Lyons, Ben
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Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491
Stoeckel, Florian
ca82e601-5b0f-4f51-9b2d-46a1693e1f25
Stöckli, Sabrina
7a440aed-0755-4e6c-b233-360ea0533b68
Ceka, Besir
4580eef3-2837-4d3f-ac4e-ce5bf5a05d7e
Ricchi, Chiara
ac8312da-4714-4a1a-a06d-583817e8d561
Lyons, Ben
b9fc96a6-4f0c-495d-ac97-8dba6eabcaae
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491

Stoeckel, Florian, Stöckli, Sabrina, Ceka, Besir, Ricchi, Chiara, Lyons, Ben and Reifler, Jason (2024) Social corrections act as a double-edged sword by reducing the perceived accuracy of false and real news in the UK, Germany, and Italy. Communications Psychology, 2 (1), 10, [10]. (doi:10.1038/s44271-024-00057-w).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Corrective or refutational posts from ordinary users on social media have the potential to improve the online information ecosystem. While initial evidence of these social corrections is promising, a better understanding of the effects across different topics, formats, and audiences is needed. In three pre-registered experiments (N = 1944 UK, N = 2467 Italy, N = 2210 Germany) where respondents completed a social media post assessment task with false and true news posts on various topics (e.g., health, climate change, technology), we find that social corrections reduce perceived accuracy of and engagement with false news posts. We also find that social corrections that flag true news as false decrease perceived accuracy of and engagement with true news posts. We did not find evidence to support moderation of these effects by correction strength, anti-expert sentiments, cognitive reflection capacities, or susceptibility to social influence. While social corrections can be effective for false news, they may also undermine belief in true news.

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Accepted/In Press date: 10 January 2024
Published date: 13 February 2024

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 498156
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/498156
ISSN: 2731-9121
PURE UUID: db485f50-b7b8-4fb9-bccc-34045d5604b8
ORCID for Jason Reifler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1116-7346

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Date deposited: 11 Feb 2025 17:55
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:43

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Contributors

Author: Florian Stoeckel
Author: Sabrina Stöckli
Author: Besir Ceka
Author: Chiara Ricchi
Author: Ben Lyons
Author: Jason Reifler ORCID iD

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