The Effect of a Protective Message on Critical Evaluation of Fake News

August 26, 2021 updated by: Frans Folkvord, Tilburg University

The Effect of Source Type and Protective Message on the Critical Evaluation of News Messages on Facebook: An Experimental Study in the Netherlands.

Background: Disinformation has become an increasing societal concern, especially due to the speed that news is shared in the current digital era. In particular in the healthcare sector disinformation can lead to serious casualties, as the current COVID-19 crisis clearly shows.

Objective: The main aim of this study was to experimentally examine the effects of information about the source's and a displayed protective warning message on users' critical evaluation of news items, as well as the perception of accuracy of the news item.

Methods: A 3(unreliable versus reliable versus no identified source) x 2 (protective message: with versus without) between subject design has been conducted among 307 participants (mean age = 29 years, SD = 10.9 years).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

400

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Netherlands
      • Tilburg, Netherlands
        • Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Facebook user
  • older than 18
  • Dutch

Exclusion Criteria:

  • younger than 18 years
  • no facebook

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: FACTORIAL
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: unreliable source
In this condition participants receive a news message from an unreliable source
Behavioral: Source of news
The main intervention was the source of the news that was shown to participants
EXPERIMENTAL: reliable source
In this condition participants receive a news message from an reliable source
Behavioral: Source of news
The main intervention was the source of the news that was shown to participants
EXPERIMENTAL: no source
In this condition participants receive a news message without a source
Behavioral: Source of news
The main intervention was the source of the news that was shown to participants

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Critical evaluation of source and news
Time Frame: immediately after exposure, 5 minutes
questionnaire
immediately after exposure, 5 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Tilburg University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

May 10, 2019

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

June 20, 2019

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

July 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 3, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 26, 2021

First Posted (ACTUAL)

September 1, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

September 1, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 26, 2021

Last Verified

August 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TiU-1

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

Upon reasonable request we will decide to share the data with other researchers

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Disclosure of Protective Message

Clinical Trials on Source of news

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in New Zealand

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe