"Partisan or party-shun?" : When fact-checking meets partisanship

Abstract

This experimental study aims to establish if the source of a fact check has an impact on its believability. Using a between-subjects design, 200 respondents were each presented with two mocked-up fake news Facebook posts that were manipulated by either a government or presumed non-government fact-checking effort. After viewing each Facebook post with its accompanied fact-check, respondents were asked questions which elicited their thoughts about the pieces of fake news and their fact-checks. A moderated mediation analysis found that a government fact-check was seen as less credible than a non-government fact-check, and that it was also thus less believable. Conversely, a non-government fact-check was seen as more credible than a non-government fact-check and thus, more believable. The results suggest that the government fact-check efforts might not be as effective as intended due to the impression of its credibility and as a result, the believability of its fact-check. Further implications of such findings and recommendations for future studies are also discussed.