Truth over falsehood: Experimental evidence on what persuades and spreads.

IF 6.7 1区 心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL
Nicolas Fay, Keith J Ransom, Bradley Walker, Piers D L Howe, Andrew Perfors, Yoshihisa Kashima
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The English poet John Milton portrayed truth as a powerful warrior capable of defeating falsehood in open combat. The spread of false information online suggests otherwise. Here, we test the persuasive power and transmission potential of true versus false messages in a controlled experimental setting, free from the effects of social media algorithms and bot amplification. Across four experiments (combined N = 4,607), we tested how perceived veracity affects message persuasion and shareability, using messages generated by both humans and large language models. Experiments 1 and 2 (persuasion game) involved participants creating and evaluating persuasive messages; Experiments 3 and 4 (attention game) focused on messages optimized to capture attention. Our findings consistently show that messages created with the intention of being truthful were more persuasive and more likely to be shared than those designed to be false. While perceived message truth was the main driver of persuasion, message transmission was primarily driven by positive emotion and social engagement, indicating that social connection is prioritized during information sharing. These results suggest that truth holds a competitive edge in the marketplace of ideas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

真理战胜谬误:关于说服和传播的实验证据。
英国诗人约翰·弥尔顿将真理描绘成一个强大的战士,能够在公开的战斗中击败谎言。网上虚假信息的传播表明情况并非如此。在这里,我们在一个受控的实验环境中测试了真实与虚假信息的说服力和传播潜力,不受社交媒体算法和机器人放大的影响。在四个实验中(合计N = 4,607),我们使用人类和大型语言模型生成的消息来测试感知真实性如何影响消息说服力和可共享性。实验1和2(说服游戏)涉及参与者创造和评估有说服力的信息;实验3和实验4(注意力游戏)关注的是吸引注意力的优化信息。我们的研究结果一致表明,以真实为目的的信息比那些设计为虚假的信息更有说服力,更容易被分享。感知信息真实性是说服的主要驱动力,而信息传播主要受积极情绪和社会参与的驱动,这表明在信息共享过程中,社会联系是优先考虑的。这些结果表明,真理在思想市场中具有竞争优势。(PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA,版权所有)。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
12.70
自引率
3.90%
发文量
250
期刊介绍: Journal of personality and social psychology publishes original papers in all areas of personality and social psychology and emphasizes empirical reports, but may include specialized theoretical, methodological, and review papers.Journal of personality and social psychology is divided into three independently edited sections. Attitudes and Social Cognition addresses all aspects of psychology (e.g., attitudes, cognition, emotion, motivation) that take place in significant micro- and macrolevel social contexts.
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