citizen-online research

​What can we do
​against misinformation
on social media?

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This research project was funded
​by the British Academy 
(SRG20\200348)
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Can users make a difference by debunking misinformation?

Our research began during the COVID-19 pandemic when a lot of misinformation about vaccines was spread online. The central research question that guides our work is whether social media users can do something against fake news on social media platforms by correcting erroneous content, for instance by writing a comment or by posting a fact checking link. Following work from Bode and Vraga (2015), we call these interventions "social corrections". We analyse the effectiveness of these social corrections by conducting experiments in the UK, Italy, and Germany.

Respondents in total
Team members
Countries
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Social corrections and real news. Social media users also post comments in the context of real (or correct) news saying that the information is wrong or incorrect. It does not make much sense to talk about "corrections" in this case, so let us call them skeptic comments.

Our initial results show that skeptic comments can make people less likely to believe real news. Thus, while comments from other people can be helpful in the context of incorrect information, comments from other people can be harmful in the context of correct information: when others cast doubt, people are less likely to believe social media content even when it is correct.

Is there a bottom line? Well, finding out what is right and what is wrong seems to be more complicated, and a first step might be to acknowledge this difficulty. Efforts to increase digital media literacy seem urgently needed. And we might all be better off if we check the facts facts before writing comments or sharing information with others!
Social corrections and fake news. Our main research question is to find out whether people perceive fake news as less accurate when other people already posted social corrections, e.g. comments that identify a post or information as incorrect.

Our initial results show that social corrections help other people when they see factually incorrect social media content: factually incorrect posts with comments from other user that identify the incorrect content are perceived as less accurate than factually incorrect posts that have not been corrected.

This seems good news: fact checking content and leaving comments can make a difference! However, what happens in case a comment denotes correct information as flawed? That is what we analysed in the second part of our field work.
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News,  Updates, Results:

For more details on our project and results, connect with one of the
project team members on social media or ResearchGate.

We are currently working on papers that will document our results
and we will make them available as soon as possible.
We will post about news here and on all other channels.

Research team

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Dr. Florian Stoeckel
Principal Investigator

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Exeter, UK
Website


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Dr. Jason Reifler

Professor at the University of Exeter
Website
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Dr. Sabrina Stöckli

Senior Research and Teaching Assistant, Department of Marketing, University of Zurich and Senior Research and Teaching Assistant, Department of Consumer Behavior, University of Bern,
Switzerland
Website

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Dr. Benjamin Lyons

Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, US
Website
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Dr. Besir Ceka

Associate Professor at Davidson College, US

Website

Dr Sofia Vasilopoulou

Professor at King's College London, UK
Website

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Chiara Ricchi

Undergraduate student at the University of Exeter
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media & outreach

We are excited to talk to the media about our project and findings. 

Radio interview with Florian Stoeckel on Deutschlandfunk Nova (in German) on the relationship between vaccine hesitancy and political attitudes. www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/impfbereitschaft-kein-impfzwang-sondern-auseinandersetzung-mit-aengsten-der-skeptiker

Radio interview on Deutschlandfunk Kultur with Florian Stoeckel (in German) www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/ostdeutsche-afd-waehler-und-die-impfbereitschaft-pauschale-100.html

Interview with Florian Stoeckel in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ, in German) on our research on vaccine hesitancy  www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/medizin-ernaehrung/impfskeptiker-und-populismus-wie-erreicht-man-die-zweifler-17449931.html

Output and previous research

 
Stamping the vaccine passport? Public support for lifting COVID-19 related restrictions for vaccinated citizens in France, Germany, and Sweden. Vaccine. With Sabrina Stöckli, Joseph Phillips, Benjamin Lyons, Vittorio Mérola, Matthew Barnfield, Paula Szewach, Jack Thompson, and Jason Reifler. Link
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The Politics of Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe. European Journal of Public Health. With Charlie Carter, Ben Lyons, and Jason Reifer. Link.

Which Vaccine Attributes foster Vaccine Uptake? A Cross-Country Conjoint Experiment". PLOS ONE. With Sabrina Stöckli, Jack Thompson, Anna Spälti,  Joseph Philips, Ben Lyons, Vittorio Merola, Jason Reifler, Matthew Barnfield and Paula Szewach. Accepted. Link.

Political Tolerance in Europe: The Role of Conspiratorial Thinking and Cosmopolitanism. European Journal of Political Research. With Besir Ceka. Link. 

Public Misperceptions of European Integration. With Ben Lyons and Jason Reifler. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties. Link

Association of Vaccine Hesitancy and Immunization Coverage Rates in the European Union. With Charlie Carter, Ben Lyons, and Jason Reifer. Vaccine. Preprint available here and published version here.

Partisanship and public opinion of COVID- 19: Does emphasizing Trump and his administration’s response to the pandemic affect public opinion about the coronavirus? With Spälti, Anna Katharina, Benjamin Lyons, Vittorio Mérola, Jason Reifler, Christine Stedtnitz, and Paula Szewach. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties. Link.

Conspiratorial thinking and foreign policy views: Evidence from Central Europe. With Michal Onderco. Forthcoming in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties. Link.

How Politics Shape Views Toward Fact-Checking: Evidence from 6 European Countries. With Ben Lyons, Vittorio Merola, and Jason Reifler. The International Journal of Press/Politics. Volume: 25 issue: 3, page(s): 469-492. Link
 

imprint

Principal Investigator Dr Florian Stoeckel: www.florianstoeckel.eu

University of Exeter, Department of Politics, Amory Building, Rennes Drive 
Exeter, Devon EX4 4RJ          United Kingdom

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