Even in Polarized Times, Fact Checking Can Sway Opinion and Eliminate Misinformation.
5 TAKEAWAYS:
1. Even in times of sharp partisanship and media distrust, fact checking works. Politicians lie or misspeak, reporters point to the real facts – and 24 hours later the entire cycle is repeated. Many reporters wonder if the elaborate fact-checking apparatus that has been built in the past two decades works. Ethan Porter and Thomas Wood, co-authors of “False Alarm: The Truth About Political Mistruths in the Trump Era,” say it does. Their controlled experiments, which showed real-world fact checks to news consumers, convinced a significantly significant percentage to modify their views. “Fact checks worked – they reduced false beliefs,” Porter said.