Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts
- (pp. 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.Citation
Henry, Emeric ⓡ Ekaterina Zhuravskaya ⓡ Sergei Guriev. 2022. "Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 14 (3): 55-86. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210037Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D81 Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
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