Do people demand fact-checked news? Evidence from US Democrats

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chopra, Felix; Haaland, Ingar; Roth, Christopher
• 署名单位: University of Bonn; University of Bergen; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Cologne; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104549
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Fact-checking; News demand; INFORMATION; media bias; Belief polarization

摘要

In a large-scale online experiment with U.S. Democrats, we examine how the demand for a newsletter about an economic relief plan changes when the newsletter content is fact-checked. We first document an overall muted demand for fact-checking when the newsletter features stories from an ideologically aligned source, even though fact-checking increases the perceived accuracy of the newsletter. The aver-age impact of fact-checking masks substantial heterogeneity by ideology: fact-checking reduces demand among Democrats with strong ideological views and increases demand among ideologically moderate Democrats. Furthermore, fact-checking increases demand among all Democrats when the newsletter fea-tures stories from an ideologically non-aligned source. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.