Increasing accuracy motivations using moral reframing does not reduce Republicans’ belief in false news

Abstract

In a pre-registered survey experiment with 2,009 conservative Republicans, we evaluated an intervention that presents having accurate beliefs as consistent with conservative political identity and values (e.g., patriotism, respect for tradition, and religious purity). The intervention caused participants to report placing greater value on accuracy, and placing greater value on accuracy was correlated with successfully rating true headlines as more accurate than false headlines. Yet, the intervention had no significant effect on accuracy judgments. These results suggest that moral reframing, and perhaps interventions based on connecting accuracy motivation with political identity more generally, may not be promising for combatting belief in misinformation.