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The Power of the Crowd

By Florian Stöckel

The Power of the Crowd

By Florian Stöckel

0 - Default Title
Description
This Element explores misinformation as a challenge for democracies, using experiments from Germany, Italy, and the UK to assess the role of user-generated corrections on social media. A sample of more than 170,000 observations across a wide range of topics (COVID, climate change, 5G etc.) is used to test whether social corrections help reduce the perceived accuracy of false news and whether miscorrections decrease the credibility of true news. Corrections reduce the perceived accuracy of misinformation, but miscorrections can harm perceptions of true news. The Element also assesses the mechanisms of social corrections, finding evidence for recency effects rather than systematic processing. Additional analyses show the characteristics of individuals who have more difficulties identifying false news. Survey data is included on characteristics of people who write comments often. The conclusion highlights that social corrections can mislead, but also work as remedy. The Element ends with best practices for effective corrections.
Product details
Number of Pages:
98
Release Date:
2025-10-31
Publication Date:
2025-10-18
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1009677179
ISBN13:
9781009677172
Weight:
305 g
Height:
157 cm
Width:
235 cm
Thickness:
10 cm
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