Background: Disinformation has become an increasing societal concern, especially due to the speed that news is shared in the current digital era. In particular in the healthcare sector disinformation can lead to serious casualties, as the current COVID-19 crisis clearly shows. Objective: The main aim of this study was to experimentally examine the effects of information about the source's and a displayed protective warning message on users' critical evaluation of news items, as well as the perception of accuracy of the news item. Methods: A 3(unreliable versus reliable versus no identified source) x 2 (protective message: with versus without) between subject design has been conducted among 307 participants (mean age = 29 years, SD = 10.9 years).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
400
The main intervention was the source of the news that was shown to participants
Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences
Tilburg, Netherlands
Critical evaluation of source and news
questionnaire
Time frame: immediately after exposure, 5 minutes
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