Advised or Paid Way to get it right. The contribution of fact-checking tips and monetary incentives to spotting scientific disinformation

Advised or Paid Way to get it right. The contribution of fact-checking tips and monetary incentives to spotting scientific disinformation | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Advised or Paid Way to get it right. The contribution of fact-checking tips and monetary incentives to spotting scientific disinformation Folco Panizza, Piero Ronzani, Simone Mattavelli, Tiffany Morisseau, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-952649/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Disinformation about science can impose enormous economic and public health burdens. Several types of interventions have been proposed to prevent the proliferation of false information online, where most of the spreading takes place. A recently proposed strategy to help online users recognise false content is to follow the techniques of professional fact checkers, such as looking for information on other websites (lateral reading) and looking beyond the first results suggested by search engines (click restraint). In two preregistered online experiments (N = 5387), we simulated a social-media environment and set-out two interventions, one in the form of a pop-up meant to advise participants to follow such techniques, the other based on monetary incentive. In Experiment 1, we compared these interventions to a control condition. In Experiment 2 another condition was added to test the joint impact of the pop-up and the monetary incentive. We measured participants' ability to identify whether presented information was scientifically valid or invalid. Results revealed that while monetary incentives were overall more effective in increasing accuracy, the pop-up contributed when the post originated from an unknown source (and participants could rely less on prior information). Additional analysis on participants’ search style based on both self-report responses and objectively measured behaviour revealed that the pop-up increased the use of fact-checking strategies, and that these in turn increased accuracy. Study 2 also clarified that the pop-up and the incentive did not interfere with each other, but rather acted complementarily, suggesting that attention and literacy interventions can be designed in synergy. Psychology lateral reading synergy preregistered online experiments effectiveness of a vaccine social policy Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files supplementaryinformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major revision 27 Jan, 2022 Reviews received at journal 13 Nov, 2021 Reviews received at journal 12 Nov, 2021 Reviewers agreed at journal 29 Oct, 2021 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Oct, 2021 Reviewers invited by journal 10 Oct, 2021 Editor assigned by journal 10 Oct, 2021 Editor invited by journal 10 Oct, 2021 Submission checks completed at journal 10 Oct, 2021 First submitted to journal 01 Oct, 2021 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-952649","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":56100966,"identity":"c594452f-1f5c-4f73-a164-a6083c5eed5c","order_by":0,"name":"Folco Panizza","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCA0DMz8AOJD8AMRs7kVokG5gZGBhngLQwE2kTWAszD4hJSIs5+9mDB3/8sZPgZ2Z++Njm1zZ5PmYGxg8fc3BrsezJSzggwZMsIdnMZmyc23fbsI2ZgVly5jbcWgwO5BgcMJBgrjM4zMMmndtzmxGohY2ZF5+W828MDiQY1EuAtVj23LYnrOUG0JYDCYchWhh+3E4kqMVyxhuDgw0HjoP9YtjbcDu5jZmxGa9fzPlzjD/++FMtwc/e/PDBjz+3bee3Nx/88BGfw1B4jG1gsgG3egwtDH/wKh4Fo2AUjIIRCgCnhEwHWrXyCQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Vita-Salute San Raffaele University","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Folco","middleName":"","lastName":"Panizza","suffix":""},{"id":56100967,"identity":"b5f1b2d5-9c6e-42cf-bd7c-892c9f36f055","order_by":1,"name":"Piero Ronzani","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Vita-Salute San Raffaele University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Piero","middleName":"","lastName":"Ronzani","suffix":""},{"id":56100968,"identity":"4ed6af2f-119c-4ffd-a5f9-f6a1528ee873","order_by":2,"name":"Simone Mattavelli","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Milano-Bicocca","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Simone","middleName":"","lastName":"Mattavelli","suffix":""},{"id":56100969,"identity":"ae121153-0bf3-4340-8b9a-7f4d213585f9","order_by":3,"name":"Tiffany Morisseau","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Paris","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tiffany","middleName":"","lastName":"Morisseau","suffix":""},{"id":56100970,"identity":"0cc41f93-41b7-44e6-b57e-cc4c8c60c3df","order_by":4,"name":"Carlo Martini","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Vita-Salute San Raffaele University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carlo","middleName":"","lastName":"Martini","suffix":""},{"id":56100971,"identity":"2db839f9-927e-4d0a-835c-5609aa092e6e","order_by":5,"name":"Matteo Motterlini","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Vita-Salute San Raffaele University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Matteo","middleName":"","lastName":"Motterlini","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2021-10-01 13:44:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-952649/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-952649/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":14444095,"identity":"37d9433b-f969-46ba-a381-b20cf0c62ad8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-10-12 12:43:48","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1343178,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"main.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-952649/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":14444094,"identity":"b6d566a4-0184-46c2-9c06-7877cdab28e4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-10-12 12:43:35","extension":"pdf","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":333197,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"supplementaryinformation.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-952649/v1/ddd1bc0d94383466989dfb5b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Advised or Paid Way to get it right. 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