Truth warrants: a market-based approach to combat misinformation
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Misinformation undermines trust and threatens societal well-being, yet critical questions remain about its underlying mechanism and how to best address it. In this research, I propose and test Truth Warrants, a platform design feature that allows social media users to take voluntary financial accountability for the veracity of the content they share. Across three large-scale studies, I find that Truth Warrants increases both the quality of news shared and perceptions of news accuracy. Furthermore, I find that Truth Warrants increase attention to true headlines, which amplifies their impact on sharing quality. They also yield spillover effects, decreasing propensity to share false news even when it is rewarding, and individuals are not accountable to accuracy. This work extends previous findings in the misinformation literature by combining accuracy prompt approaches with incentivized accountability, revealing a scalable and decentralized mechanism to address the spread of misinformation. In Chapter 1, I review psychological and socio-demographic factors that affect belief and sharing of misinformation. In Chapter 2, I discuss strategies to address misinformation sharing and the underlying factors they address. In Chapter 3, I provide theoretical background for Truth Warrants and test their potential.
Description
2025
License
Attribution 4.0 International