Let’s intervene: How platforms can combine media literacy and self-efficacy to fight fake news

Abstract

In light of concerns over the spread of so-called “fake news” on social media, organizations, and policymakers have increasingly sought to identify tools that can be used to stem the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation. Some evidence suggests that brief media literacy interventions might serve as an important means of helping social media users discern between “real” and “fake” news headlines. However, empirical research indicates that these effects tend to be relatively modest in magnitude. To that end, this study explored the degree to which epistemic self-efficacy beliefs may be able to positively “boost” media literacy interventions. Specifically, we used a series of 2 × 2 experiments to test the contention that the combinatory effects of epistemic self-efficacy and media literacy interventions will better equip users with the resources necessary to discern between disinformation and objectively produced news content. The results failed to indicate the presence of combinatory effects. We did, however, find initial evidence that epistemic self-efficacy beliefs may be importantly associated with the ability to properly classify both fake and mainstream news content.