2024/03/14 by Patrick F. A. van Erkel, Peter Van Aelst, Claes H. de Vreese +4 · 1 voice · 17 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Computer science #Inclusion (mineral) #Internet privacy #Law #Law and economics #Media Influence and Politics #Misinformation #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Public relations #Social Media and Politics #Social psychology #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/15205436.2024.2321542
published in Mass Communication & Society 27(5), 851-876 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2024/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Despite increasing academic attention, several questions about fact-checking remain unanswered. First, it remains unclear to what extent fact-checks are effective across different political and media contexts. Second, we know little on whether features of the fact-check itself influence its success. Conducting an experiment in 16 European countries, this study aims to fill these gaps by examining two features of fact-checks that may affect their success: whether fact-checks include the political source of the misinformation, and the source of the fact-check itself. We find that fact-checks are successful in debunking misperceptions. Moreover, this debunking effect is consistent across countries. Looking at features of fact-checks, we find no indication that it matters whether fact-checks include the political source of the misinformation claim. Comparing fact-checks from independent organizations with those from public broadcasters, we do find, however, that who the fact-checker is matters, especially in combination with trust in this source.