Do people demand fact-checked news? Evidence from U.S. Democrats
中文摘要
在一项针对美国民主党人的大规模在线实验中,我们考察了当简报内容经过事实核查时,人们对一份关于经济纾困计划的简报的需求会如何变化。我们首先发现,当简报采用意识形态立场一致的来源的报道时,人们对事实核查的总体需求较为疲弱,尽管事实核查提高了简报被感知的准确性。事实核查的平均效应掩盖了按意识形态划分的显著异质性:事实核查降低了持有强烈意识形态观点的民主党人的需求,并提高了意识形态温和的民主党人的需求。此外,当简报采用意识形态立场不一致的来源的报道时,事实核查会提高所有民主党人的需求。
Abstract
In a large-scale online experiment with U.S. Democrats, we examine how the demand for a newsletter about an economic relief plan changes when the newsletter content is fact-checked. We first document an overall muted demand for fact-checking when the newsletter features stories from an ideologically aligned source, even though fact-checking increases the perceived accuracy of the newsletter. The average impact of fact-checking masks substantial heterogeneity by ideology: fact-checking reduces demand among Democrats with strong ideological views and increases demand among ideologically moderate Democrats. Furthermore, fact-checking increases demand among all Democrats when the newsletter features stories from an ideologically non-aligned source.