When are fact-checks effective?
- Author(s)
- Patrick van Erkel, Peter van Aelst, Claes H. de Vreese, David Nicolas Hopmann, Jörg Matthes, James Stanyer, Nicoleta Corbu
- Abstract
Despite increasing academic attention, several questions about fact-checking remain unanswered. First, it remains unclear to what extent fact-checks are effective across different political and media contexts. Second, we know little on whether features of the fact-check itself influence its success. Conducting an experiment in 16 European countries, this study aims to fill these gaps by examining two features of fact-checks that may affect their success: whether fact-checks include the political source of the misinformation, and the source of the fact-check itself. We find that fact-checks are successful in debunking misperceptions. Moreover, this debunking effect is consistent across countries. Looking at features of fact-checks, we find no indication that it matters whether fact-checks include the political source of the misinformation claim. Comparing fact-checks from independent organizations with those from public broadcasters, we do find, however, that who the fact-checker is matters, especially in combination with trust in this source.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- University of Antwerp, University of Amsterdam (UvA), University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Loughborough University, University of Bucharest
- Journal
- Mass Communication and Society
- Volume
- 27
- Pages
- 851-876
- No. of pages
- 26
- ISSN
- 1520-5436
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2024.2321542
- Publication date
- 03-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/a75ad2c5-9fab-4f0c-ade7-d55da63793c5