Does Explanation Matter? An Exploratory Study on the Effects of Covid 19 Misinformation Warning Flags on Social Media

TL;DR

This study explores how warning flags and explanatory text on social media influence trust and sharing intentions regarding COVID-19 misinformation, highlighting the importance of transparency in misinformation mitigation.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that warning flags and explanations can reduce fake news credibility and sharing, emphasizing transparency's role in misinformation correction.

Findings

Warning flags decrease perceived accuracy of fake news.

Explanatory text enhances trustworthiness of warning systems.

Warning flags reduce intent to share misinformation.

Abstract

We investigate whether adding specific explanations from fact checking websites enhances trust in these flags. We experimented with 348 American participants, exposing them to a randomised order of true and false news headlines related to COVID 19, with and without warning flags and explanation text. Our findings suggest that warning flags, whether alone or accompanied by explanatory text, effectively reduce the perceived accuracy of fake news and the intent to share such headlines. Interestingly, our study also suggests that incorporating explanatory text in misinformation warning systems could significantly enhance their trustworthiness, emphasising the importance of transparency and user comprehension in combating fake news on social media.