Fake news : what is its impact? can we do something about it?
Date
2020-12
Authors
Wasserman, Lucio
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Pérez-Truglia, Ricardo Nicolás
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía
Abstract
The rise of fake news led to widespread public concerns based on claims that it affects
behaviors. Nevertheless, the evidence of the impact of fake news on behaviors is scarce
and inconclusive, and there is no consensus on how to deal with the potential negative
effects. In this paper we conduct a survey experiment to evaluate the impact of a fake news
article concerning environmental activism. Additionally, the effect of a fact-checking article
correcting the fake news story is also evaluated. The measured outcomes include beliefs
and pro-environmental preferences and behaviors. The treated participants were randomly
assigned to either read an extract of the fake news article or of the correction article. The
remaining participants conform the control group. We find clear impacts on beliefs: the
fake news article increases misperceptions while the correction reduces them. However, our
results show small to null effects of both treatments on pro-environmental preferences and
behaviors.
Description
Fil: Wasserman, Lucio. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía; Argentina.