In this accuracy prompt, individuals are to evaluate and rate how accurate they percieve a neutral news headline to be. Individuals are shown differing numbers of these neutral headlines (some are shown 10, some are shown 1). Additionally, some individuals are given feedback regarding the accuracy of their perception while others are not. 

Evaluation

Individuals must identify how important they personally believe it is for those on online platforms to solely share news that is truthful and accurate. 

Importance

Community/group norms are established by informing individuals of what other participants believe in regards to the importance accuracy prompt. 

Norms

Individuals are exposed to a PSA to serve as a reminder of the importance of being aware of information accuracy, especialy when intending to share information with others. 

Public Service Announcement

Individuals must identify how personally important they find it to reason and think about information prior to sharing it (as opposed to only emotionally reacting to it).

Reason

Individuals are exposed to a series of simple tips regarding digital literacy. 

Tips

1. Evaluation
2. Importance
3. Norms
4. Public Service Announcement (PSA)
5. Reason
6. Tips

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

In an accuracy prompt, an individual is prompted to actively think about accuracy as a concept prior to being exposed to the piece of information that they are to evaluate (ex. news headline). Accuracy prompts are particularly useful because they are proactive rather than reactive, thus they can help prevent the sharing of misinformation in the first place in addition to avoidaing a reliance on tech companies/government regulators to be doing the discerning of whether or not a piece of information is accurate. Accuracy prompts have been shown to result in a significant increase in helping to proactively reduce the spread of misinformation, evident by the 71.7% increase in sharing discernment following the use of accuracy prompts. 

Solution to Misinformation: Accuracy Prompts

Sharing discernment can be approached by understanding how well interventions, such as accuracy prompts, can contribute to thre rise in quality (quality includes accuracy) of the news that users of online platforms share with one another. This is calculated by looking at the difference of sharing intentions for accurate news and sharing intentions of inaccurate news. A higher value is evidence of a relatively higher rate of accurate news being shared while a lower value is indicative of the opposite. 

Sharing Discernment 

This refers to the intentions behind the media/news-sharing actions of users on online platforms. Many participants of the study agreed that sharing only news that was factual was important, but their intentions did not match their ability to correctly and accurately differentiate factual vs. false information. 

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