Do people demand fact-checked news? Evidence from US Democrats

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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 aver-age 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104549
JournalJournal of Public Economics
Volume205
Number of pages10
ISSN0047-2727
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

    Research areas

  • Fact-checking, News demand, Information, Media bias, Belief polarization

ID: 321653299