Educative Interventions to Combat Misinformation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in India

Abstract

Misinformation makes democratic governance harder, especially in developing countries. Despite its real-world import, little is known about how to combat misinformation outside of the United States, particularly in places with low education, accelerating Internet access, and encrypted information sharing. This study uses a field experiment in India to test the efficacy of a pedagogical intervention on respondents’ ability to identify misinformation during the 2019 elections (N = 1,224). Treated respondents received hour-long in-person media literacy training in which enumerators discussed inoculation strategies, corrections, and the importance of verifying misinformation, all in a coherent learning module. Receiving this hour-long media literacy intervention did not significantly increase respondents’ ability to identify misinformation on average. However, treated respondents who support the ruling party became significantly less able to identify pro-attitudinal stories. These findings point to the resilience of misinformation in India and the presence of motivated reasoning in a traditionally nonideological party system.

Countering Misinformation on Social Media Through Educational Interventions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Pakistan

“…For example, ) find an effect size of 0.11 in their online convenience sample in India and no effect on a rural sample that received tips to spot fake news in person. Similarly, Badrinathan (2020) does not find any significant effect. The effect in this study is also larger than the effect size of 0.08 found in (Clayton et al 2020), as a result of giving general warnings about misinformation on social media users in the US recruited from MTurk.…”

“…We are aware of two contemporaneous media and information literacy evaluation programs carried out in developing countries. Badrinathan (2020) evaluates the effectiveness of in-person media literacy training on two tools for identifying misinformation: navigating a fact-checking website and reverse image searching using a low digital literacy sample from India. The paper finds no significant effect on the respondents' ability to identify misinformation.…”

Digital literacy is associated with more discerning accuracy judgments but not sharing intentions

“…These interventions were focused more on media literacy than on digital skills per se; and similarly, Hameleers (2020) found that a media literacy intervention with no digital literacy component increased American and Dutch subjects' ability to identify misinformation. Conversely, Badrinathan (2021) found no effect of an hour-long media literacy training of Indian subjects' ability to tell truth from falsehood.…”

Partisan Disagreement: The Role of Media, Personal Networks and Gender in Forming Political Preferences

“…One plausible argument is that women have lower mobile phone ownership due to lower levels of functional literacy. We also note here that higher levels of education may also allow one to discern disingenuous or 'fake news' (Badrinathan, 2021).…”