Silver-tongued users? The impact of source nature and credibility on fact-checking effectiveness
(A2022-107516)

AUTHORS

Ambre Gambin, Université de Montpellier; Andreas Munzel, Université de Montpellier

ABSTRACT

Fake news is spreading more than ever across social media. Previous work has mainly focused on the sources creating and sharing fake news or on the shape fact-checking should take to be effective. Surprisingly, very few marketing studies have examined the effects of fake news or its correction. To fill this gap, this paper investigates how the perceived credibility of different sources impacts the efficacy of their fact-checking posts on social media. Through an experimental design, participants were shown a fake news story and its correction from different sources and were presented to either one of three fact-checking source profiles (e-opinion leader, normal user, independent experts organization). The research aims to explain why some users could be more persuasive than others through their perceived credibility. These results would help identify the sources that, by overcoming the limits of fact-checking, could effectively play a part in the fight against fake news.