Examining accuracy-prompt efficacy in combination with using colored borders to differentiate news and social content online

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that prompting users to consider the accuracy of online posts increases the quality of news they share on social media. Here we examine how accuracy prompts affect user behavior in a more realistic context, and whether their effect can be enhanced by using colored borders to differentiate news from social content. Our results show that accuracy prompts increase news-sharing quality without affecting sharing of social (non-news) posts or “liking” behavior. We also find that adding colored borders around news posts increased overall engagement with news regardless of veracity, and decreased engagement with social posts.