Motivated Reasoning is Key to Fact-checking Behavior, and Money is Not

Abstract

This paper investigates the cause and consequence of fact-checking. In an online experiment, we asked subjects to evaluate news veracity and varied two experimental conditions: (1) the opportunity to receive fact-checking results and (2) bonus payment for accuracy. We test three competing theories for fact-checking behavior: value of information (VoI), limited attention (LA), and motivated reasoning (MR). We find that monetary incentives do not promote fact-checking. Prior awareness of the news and perceived easiness in determining news authenticity significantly reduce fact-checking. Democrats are more likely to fact-check on the news aligning with Republicans' ideology, suggesting a tendency to seek information when there is a need to defend one's pre-existing belief. Overall, our results contradict VoI, show mixed evidence for LA, and support MR. When available, fact-checking consistently improves subjects' accuracy in evaluating news veracity by over 40\%.

Keywords: Fact-checking, Misinformation, Experiment