How Accurate Are Accuracy-Nudge Interventions? A Preregistered Direct Replication of Pennycook et al. (2020)
Abstract
As part of the Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE) program, the present study consisted of a two-stage replication test of a central finding by Pennycook et al. (2020), namely that asking people to think about the accuracy of a single headline improves “truth discernment” of intentions to share news headlines about COVID-19. The first stage of the replication test ( n = 701) was unsuccessful ( p = .67). After collecting a second round of data (additional n = 882, pooled N = 1,583), we found a small but significant interaction between treatment condition and truth discernment (uncorrected p = .017; treatment: d = 0.14, control: d = 0.10). As in the target study, perceived headline accuracy correlated with treatment impact, so that treatment-group participants were less willing to share headlines that were perceived as less accurate. We discuss potential explanations for these findings and an unreported change in the hypothesis (but not the analysis plan) from the preregistration in the original study.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 11, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1177/09567976211024535
Entities
People
- Alexandra L. J. Freeman
- Jon Roozenbeek
- Sander van der Linden
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- University of Cambridge