Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological science, 31(7), 770-780.

University of California, Berkeley

This study looks at how nudging affects users' choices on what to share on social media, looking specifically at COVID-19 misinformation and using accuracy reminders. 

Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on
Social Media: Experimental Evidence for
a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention

- March 12, 2020
- 853 participants (mean age = 46 years, age range = 18–90; 357 men, 482 women, and 14 other/prefer not to answer)
- all participants use Facebook or Twitter
- got 15 true and 15 false news headlines from the Harvard Global Health Institute
- headlines were presented in the form of Facebook posts 
- participants were split into two random groups "accuracy" vs "sharing"
- those in the "accuracy" group were asked: “To the best of your knowledge, is the
claim in the above headline accurate?” 
- those in the "sharing" group were asked: “Would you consider sharing this story online (for example, through Facebook or Twitter?)”
- before the task, participants were asked questions about the pandemic: how concerned they are about COVID-19 and how often they check news related to COVID-19
- participants were also given a Cognitive Reflection Test, a general science-knowledge quiz, and Medical Maximizer-Minimizer Scale 
- political ideology and party alignment were also noted
- attention checks were used to ensure participants are actually doing the tasks (asking what the article is about / where it was published)

Study 1 Methods

- March 13 to March 15, 2020
- 856 participants (mean age = 47 years, age range = 18–86; 385 men, 463 women, and 8 other/prefer not to answer)
- each participant assigned to one of two conditions
- control: same news-sharing task as study 1
- treatment: participants rated accuracy of an unrelated headline before doing the same news-sharing task
- all other measures were also used in this study: Cognitive Reflection Test, a general science-knowledge quiz, the Medical Maximizer-Minimizer Scale, and political ideology/party alignment
- attention were used as well for this study

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