Lateral reading and monetary incentives to spot disinformation about science.

ABSTRACT: Disinformation about science can impose enormous economic and public health burdens. A recently proposed strategy to help online users recognise false content is to follow the techniques of professional fact checkers, such as looking for information on other websites (lateral reading) and looking beyond the first results suggested by search engines (click restraint). In two preregistered online experiments (N = 5387), we simulated a social media environment and tested two interventions, one in the form of a pop-up meant to advise participants to follow such techniques, the other based on monetary incentives. We measured participants' ability to identify whether information was scientifically valid or invalid. Analysis of participants' search style reveals that both monetary incentives and

SUBMITTER: Panizza F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8981191 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature