Following News on Social Media Boosts Knowledge, Belief Accuracy, and Trust

Many worry that news on social media leaves people uninformed or even misinformed. We conducted a preregistered two-wave online field experiment in France and Germany (N= 3,395) to estimate the effect of following the news on Instagram and WhatsApp. Participants were asked to follow two accounts for two weeks and activate the notifications. In the treatment condition, the accounts were those of news organizations, while in the control condition they covered cooking, cinema, or art. The treatment enhanced current affairs knowledge, participants’ ability to discern true from false news stories, awareness of true news stories, as well as trust in the news. The treatment had no significant effects on feeling of being informed, political efficacy, affective polarization, and interest in news or politics. These results suggest that while some forms of social media use are harmful, others are beneficial and can be leveraged to foster a well-informed society.