- Participants in treatment condition who rated accuracy of headlines first were less likely to share false headlines 
- Treatment condition did not alter likelihood of sharing accurate headlines 
- Treatment condition also had a greater impact on headlines corresponding to participant political affiliations 
- Active control and importance treatments also raised participants’ awareness regarding the sharing of misinformation 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Studies 3 & 4– accuracy rating and sharing surveys 
- 727 (study 3) and 780 (study 4) participants from MTurk were shown 24 news headlines like in study 1
- Control group participants asked how likely they would share each headline on Facebook
- Treatment group first asked to rate accuracy of headlines before sharing intentions

Study 5 – representative population 
- 1268 participants from Lucid with age, gender, ethnicity, and geographic region that supposedly represented American residents 
- Active control condition asked participants to rate how humorous headlines were instead of accuracy 
- Importance treatment asked participants how important they think sharing just accurate information is in general

Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online - primary accuracy studies

Pennycook, G., Epstein, Z., Mosleh, M., Arechar, A. A., Eckles, D., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature, 592(7855), 590-595. https://psyarxiv.com/3n9u8 

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