Is Fact-checking the Solution for Fake News on the Internet?

In his most recent book, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," Yuval Harari (2018) identifies fake news as one of the greatest challenges we face in the 21st century. Although misinformation and propaganda are not new to society, he describes how the information overload in modern society, caused primarily by social media, overwhelms our brains, which are better at digesting exciting stories than analyzing facts, numbers, or statistics. Harari (2018) does not specifically propose fact-checking as a solution but highlights Artificial Intelligence and more participation by the scientific community to share their knowledge in easily comprehendible stories with society.

Due to their unrestricted access to content and rapid dissemination of misleading information, social media, or Social Networking Sites [SNS] are a driving force in the creation of information overload. Numerous SNS have attempted to solve this issue by introducing methods or tools to prevent the distribution of false information, with the intention of supporting users with the individual validation process. Popular and trending posts are typically fact-checked by independent agencies or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on most platforms. When a post contains inaccurate or potentially misleading information, it is either marked as such or deleted. 

Although fact-checking in the form of labeling or removing content has become an industry standard for most platforms (Garrett & Poulsen, 2019), it is unclear whether the implemented tools are effective in correcting false beliefs or whether they are merely a PR and marketing claim, i.e., bluewashing, to appease public policymakers. 

Nevertheless, research indicates that the current measures are insufficient (Chou et al., 2021). Extraneous factors such as the perceived credibility of the correcting source (Zhang et al., 2021; Kim & Dennis, 2019), the presentation of the corrected information (Nassetta & Gross, 2020), or social connections and political affiliations (Margolin et al, 2018) can negatively impact the effectiveness of fact-checking tools. Furthermore, psychological factors such as confirmation bias (Kim & Dennis, 2019) or reactance (Garrett & Poulsen, 2019) can have negative consequences by, for example, reinforcing false information, implying that the act of correcting false information may already have a negative impact on the effectiveness of fact-checking (Nisbet et al., 2015; Schwarz et al., 2016).

The increasing relevance and usage of social media networks, which causes fake news to spread faster than ever, emphasizes the need to understand the effectiveness of fact checking. Ineffective measures against this spread could impact general education and trust in media sources which influences the democratic discourse once there is no everyday basis for mutual exchange. In the past years, it has become more difficult to identify fake news (Dimock, 2019) and most news on social media is already perceived as false by young adults (Gallup and Knight Foundation, 2020) highlighting wider relevance and possible implications for society. 

In a recent study, Gallup looked deeper into the division of society, fake news, and trust in media. The issue becomes very clear when looking at the trust in mass media concerning political party affiliation. In 1998, 59% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans stated that they trust the media. In the recent survey from Gallup, trust in media from Democrats increased to 73% but decreased to only 10% for Republicans (Brenan, 2020). This is also considered a "political divide" and points out the fundamental problem of media consumption today: A significant portion of society does not believe the information they receive from media channels or avoids them entirely, instead depending mainly on information in their social media feeds, emphasizing the need for effective fact-checking measures. This "information gerrymandering" can distort social media opinions because people establish opinions based on the media they consume or the people with whom they engage, while social networking sites or their algorithms, as well as confirmation bias, create an "information bubble."

When people are within their information bubble, they cannot pay attention to all news because of an information overload. Whenever our brain is overwhelmed by the influx of stimuli, it uses cognitive heuristics to ease our thinking. People prefer easily consumable stories and information from people they trust (from in-group sources), which they are more inclined to share with others, as noted by Harari (2018). Also, due to confirmation bias, people search for information that supports their beliefs and are more likely to remember them (Menczer & Hills, 2020). Consequently, when people distrust the media and are in their information bubble, they are more likely to believe and share fake news (Ognyanova et al., 2020). This exemplifies the fundamental problem with false information on social networking sites and the significance of understanding the efficacy of fact-checking. Fake news spreads faster than the truth, producing a downward spiral, when users are overloaded with too much information, unable to verify its authenticity, and more willing to share the information from their relatives and friends (Vosoughi et al., 2018). The use of fact-checking tools could be a viable method for reversing this downward spiral and assisting users in the validation process, without necessarily preventing the rapid spread of information, but rather reducing the distribution of incorrect information.

As part of my psychology graduate degree program at Harvard Extension School, I proposed a study that explores the effectiveness of fact-checking tools on social media depending on their type and source by assessing their effect on users' belief in information and the perceived trust in a SNS. Based on research by Nassetta and Gross (2020) which indicate a relation between effective fact-checking and the presentation of the corrected information, the type of fact-checking will be manipulated in this study by using presentation conditions. Additionally, research showed that the effectiveness of fact-checking can also depend on the source that correct the information Zhang et al., 2021; Kim & Dennis, 2019). As a result, my study will include a variety of sources as the sender of the correction. The source of the correction will be labeled as internal correction by the social media platform or external correction by, for example, a bipartisan fact-checking organization.

Due to the relevance and topicality of fake news and the potential of societal division, more study is needed to combat misleading information on SNS. The study will examine fact-checking tags, media mistrust, and general trust. To test effectiveness, it will be established if fact-checking labels may increase trust in the platform or change an individual's perspective on a topic like vaccine or climate change to advise SNS or public policymakers. Effective solutions to limit the flow of inaccurate information on social networking sites and help users' validation procedures must be identified to avoid society from fragmenting into information bubbles that cannot agree on basic facts (McCoy & Somer, 2019; Zhuravskaya et al., 2020).

Over the next months & under the supervision of Dr. Shuman and Prof. Goldenberg from Harvard Business School, I will study various fact-checking tools used by social media platforms to combat the spread of misinformation on the internet, as well as the impact these tools may have on the perceived accuracy of information and the level of user trust they may establish.

If you're interested in discussing false news & misinformation on social media, fact-checking, and the effects of corrections on belief, feel free to send me a message. 

References

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