An effective tool to combat misbeliefs and misinformation

The Misinformation and fake news It is a growing problem, exacerbated especially in the political context and more recently by pandemic COVID-19. According to the 2020 Media Manipulation Survey of oxford internet instituteManipulating public opinion on social networks 15% more than the previous year. Faced with this situation, the Fact Check oh no reality check It is presented as an effective tool to combat false beliefs, as confirmed by a study Ohio state community (where).

For their analysis, the researchers conducted an investigation of Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom, where they found that Fact Check It works with small differences. Also, the positive effect of data verification I stayed for up to two weeks after that, according to the evidence collected during the study. In previous years, consensus referred to Ineffectiveness of correcting misinformation and possibility Include more false beliefs In people through this practice. However, experts did not find any evidence of this phenomenon in any of the mentioned countries.

according to release From the OU, the researchers conducted their study by evaluating five fact-checks, unique to each country. as they used it Two additional checks on Covid-19 and climate change They evaluated it equally in the four countries. Some participants in each country only received false information, while others received false information followed by a fact-check. In addition, there was a control group No false information or verifications were given from organizations Fact Check Study participants.

The groups were then asked to rate how much they believed the false statements, on a scale of 1 to 5. Compared to the misinformation, Check Fact Check It did not always lead to less accurate beliefs compared to control groups. Based on the results, data verification information Accuracy of facts increased by 0.59 points on a five-point scale.

Unlike that, Misinformation reduces the accuracy of the facts Less than 0.07 on the same scale. With this, the researchers concluded that Misinformation is less convincing Compared to corrective information in general. Two weeks after this first evaluation, the scientists again asked participants how much they believed the eligible data and confirmed the permanence of Positive effect Fact Check.

The researchers point out that most of the studies showing that cross-data validation is counterproductive were primarily conducted in United State. Experts call these educated, industrialized, wealthy and democratic Western countries “strange samples”, where Political ideology plays an important role in false beliefs And they behave differently from other countries in the world.

On this topic, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) I found it earlier Correcting people when they share false information on Twitter can lead to adverse impact. Consistent with what was said about “alien samples”, the MIT investigation noted a drop in quality and Increased partisan tendencies and language poisoning Subsequent retweets of corrected users in tweetss.

Spreading false beliefs and misinformation has a detrimental effect on people in various fields, from politics to health. Despite the controversy that fighting misinformation can cause in some countries in general positive effect of Fact Check Faced with this problem. With this guide, it will be positive to open up more spaces in the media, always with an extension Rigorous data verification methodology.

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