Social Truth Queries as a Novel Method for Combating Misinformation: Evidence From Kenya

Abstract

The global reach of misinformation has exacerbated harms in low- and middle-income countries faced with deficiencies in funding, platform engagement, and media literacy. These challenges have reiterated the need for the development of strategies capable of addressing misinformation that cannot be countered using popular fact-checking methods. Focusing on Kenya’s contentious 2022 election, we evaluate a novel method for democratizing debunking efforts termed “social truth queries” (STQs), which use questions posed by everyday users to draw reader attention to the veracity of the targeted misinformation in the aim of minimizing its impact. In an online survey of Kenyan participants ( N ~ 4,000), we test the efficacy of STQs in reducing the influence of electoral misinformation which could not have been plausibly fact-checked using existing methods. We find that STQs reduce the perceived accuracy of misinformation while also reducing trust in prominent disseminators of misinformation, with null results for sharing propensities. While effect sizes are small across conditions, assessments of the respondents most susceptible to misinformation reveal larger potential effects if targeted at vulnerable users. These findings collectively illustrate the potential of STQs to expand the reach of debunking efforts to a wider array of actors and misinformation clusters.