Sharing fake news

Last registered on May 20, 2019
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Sharing fake news
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0004060
Initial registration date
May 14, 2019

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 20, 2019, 2:28 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
France
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
EMERIC HENRY
Affiliation
Sciences Po
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ekaterina Zhuravskaya
PI Affiliation
PSE
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Sergei Guriev
PI Affiliation
Sciences Po
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-05-20
End date
2019-05-26
Keywords
Electoral
Additional Keywords
fake news, fact checking, sharing
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In this trial we plan to investigate the sharing of fake news. We address the following questions. (1) does fact-checking (i.e., providing corrective information) limit the sharing of fake news? (2) if so, what drives the decrease in sharing, image concerns or moral costs? (3) do characteristics of the sharer affect the sharing decision of the recipient? This will be done using a randomized survey experiment where participants will be randomly exposed to fake news with and without fact checking. The experiment will be conducted in the context of the European elections in May 2019.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Guriev, Sergei, EMERIC HENRY and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. 2019. "Sharing fake news." AEA RCT Registry. May 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4060-1.0
Former Citation
Guriev, Sergei, EMERIC HENRY and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. 2019. "Sharing fake news." AEA RCT Registry. May 20. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/4060/history/46894
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We detail here the intervention (see pre analysis plan for more details)

The participants will be divided into 2 groups:
Group 1 -- "the sharers"
Group 2 -- "the receivers".

The sharers will be randomly allocated to one of 3 groups:
• Alternative facts sharers (Alt Fact Share) group will be exposed to a quote from the campaign that includes some untrue information (but with full and correct attribution to the source), what we call "fake news."
• Exogenous fact-checking group (Fact Check) will be presented with the same quote (fake news) followed by fact-checking (again with full attribution to where the correct information comes from).
• Endogenous fact-checking group (Fact Check) will be presented with fake news.They will be asked whether they want to obtain the fact checking information.

Following exposure, the participants will be asked whether they want to share the news first on their facebook account, then with future participants in the experiment. Then they will be asked about their voting intentions and their knowledge of facts

The receivers will have exactly the same task as the first group. There are two differences:
1. They will be told that the content they read was shared by a previous participant (and give some characteristics of the participant, such as the reported voting intentions)
2. The proportions in each treatment will be determined by the choices made by the sharers in the first part.

We will have 3 groups:
- Control group: see nothing
- Fake from supporters: get fake information, source of sharing is a supporter
- Fake from non supporters: get fake information, source of sharing is a non supporter

Size of the groups?
The size of each group will be determined by the sharing decisions of the first group


Intervention Start Date
2019-05-20
Intervention End Date
2019-05-26

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Key outcomes of interest:
- proportion of sharers on Facebook across treatments
- proportion of sharers within our experiment
- voting intentions in the European elections
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
see pre analysis plan attached
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The participants to the survey will be randomly allocated to the different groups by the survey platform we use called Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
na
Sample size: planned number of observations
5000 survey respondents divided in 6 treatment groups
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
832 individuals per treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB PSE
IRB Approval Date
2019-02-25
IRB Approval Number
2019005
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials