Misinformation Interventions

Strategies designed to reduce the creation, spread, and belief in misinformation. This includes behavioral nudges, fact-checking, media literacy training, platform-level design changes, and counter-messaging approaches.

Key papers

• Kim et al. (2017) — Leveraging the Crowd to Detect and Reduce the Spread of Fake News and Misinformation — System-level intervention: schedules which stories to send for fact-checking using stochastic optimal control, minimizing spread given limited resources and uncertain user flagging behavior
• Pennycook et al. (2021) — Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online — Demonstrates that subtle reminders to focus on accuracy increase sharing of accurate news; shows limited attention, not confusion, drives misinformation sharing
• Pennycook & Rand (2020) — Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media — Shows accuracy nudges nearly triple truth discernment when deciding what to share on social media
• Guess et al. (2020) — A digital media literacy intervention increases discernment between mainstream and false news — RCT testing simple media literacy "tips" as scalable interventions; 26.5% improvement in discernment
• Walter et al. (2020) — Fact-Checking: A Meta-Analysis of What Works and for Whom — Meta-analysis of 30 studies on fact-checking effectiveness, identifying moderators of success
• Cook (2017) — Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation — Psychological inoculation approaches to prebunk misinformation
• Ecker et al. (2022) — The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction — Review of cognitive mechanisms and evidence-based intervention strategies

Related topics

• Behavioral Nudges — specific type of intervention using attention or salience mechanisms
• Misinformation — the broader problem these interventions address
• Fact-checking and corrections — one evidence-based correction approach
• Media literacy — educational interventions to improve discernment