Abstract
Recent research suggests that shifting users’ attention to accuracy increases the quality of news they subsequently share online. Here we help develop this initial observation into a suite of deploy-able interventions for practitioners. We ask (i) how prior results generalize to other approaches for prompting users to consider accuracy, and (ii) for whom these prompts are more versus less effec-tive. In a large survey experiment examining participants’ intentions to share true and false head-lines about COVID-19, we identify a variety of different accuracy prompts that su¬ccessfully increase sharing
Highlights
● Which approaches to shifting attention towards accuracy are most effective? ● Does the effectiveness of the accuracy prompts vary based on social media user characteristics?
From a practical perspective, our results suggest a menu of accuracy prompts that are effective in our experimental setting and that technology companies could consider testing on their own services
(v) informing participants that other people thought it was important to share only accurate news was ineffective on its own but may have increased the effectiveness of other approaches when implemented together. These findings demonstrate that accuracy prompt effects are not unique to the particular implementations used in prior work and provide platform designers with a menu of effective accuracy prompts to choose from when creating user experiences to increase the quality of information online
Summary
Recent research suggests that shifting users’ attention to accuracy increases the quality of news they subsequently share online. In a large survey experiment examining participants’ intentions to share true and false headlines about COVID-19, we identify a variety of different accuracy prompts that successfully increase sharing discernment across a wide range of demographic subgroups while maintaining user autonomy. Berinsky (3), Rocky Cole (4), Andrew Gully (4), Gordon Pennycook (5,6), David G. Rand (2,7) Affiliations: (1) Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, (2) Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, (3) Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, (4) Google, USA, (5) Hill/Levene Schools of Business, University of Regina, Canada, (6) Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Canada, (7) Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA How to cite: Epstein Z., Berinsky A. J., Cole, R., Gully, A., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. Developing an accuracyprompt toolkit to reduce COVID-19 misinformation online.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
