Closing the Motivation Gap: Incentives Enhance Visual Misinformation Discernment and Verification

TL;DR

This study investigates how different incentives in digital media literacy interventions influence the detection and verification of visual misinformation, finding that task-based and monetary incentives boost immediate verification behaviors, while result-based incentives sustain accuracy over time.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the type and mechanism of incentives significantly affect the short- and long-term effectiveness of interventions against visual misinformation.

Findings

Task-based incentives, especially monetary, increase immediate image verification behaviors.

Result-based incentives improve long-term discernment accuracy.

Multi-phased incentive strategies enhance overall effectiveness in combating visual misinformation.

Abstract

Cheapfakes, or real images presented misleadingly or in unrelated contexts, are an increasingly prominent form of visual misinformation. While media literacy interventions can enhance individuals' ability to detect such content, motivational barriers often hinder the adoption of image verification. This study examines whether incorporating different mechanisms and types of incentives into a digital media literacy intervention improves visual misinformation discernment and image verification behavior, both immediately and over time. We conducted a pre-registered two-wave between-subjects online experiment (N = 1,421) on a professionally designed social media platform. The study used a 2 (Incentive Type: symbolic vs. monetary) x 2 (Incentive Mechanism: task- vs. result-based) factorial design with additional control groups. Results show that task-based incentives, particularly monetary ones, were most effective at initiating image verification behaviors, namely reverse image search, and boosting short-term discernment, whereas result-based incentives were more effective in sustaining discernment accuracy. These findings suggest that both the mechanism and the type of incentives play a critical role in shaping the short- and long-term effectiveness of media literacy interventions, highlighting the value of multi-phased incentive strategies for combating visual misinformation in digital environments.