Does Explanation Matter? An Exploratory Study on the Effects of Covid–19 Misinformation Warning Flags on Social Media

Digital platforms have employed flagging techniques to tackle misinformation as they offer a promising means of informing users about harmful content without resorting to censorship. However, their effectiveness depends on the user’s understanding of the flags. Fact-checkers have been crucial in tackling misinformation online, but interestingly, fact-checked explanations have rarely been incorporated directly into the warning flags. They have usually been linked and directed towards their websites. Therefore, this study investigates user responses to misinformation flags in a hypothetical social media setting. It focuses on whether warnings influence users’ perceived accuracy judgement and sharing intent of the false headlines. We also investigate whether adding specific explanations from fact-checking websites enhances trust in these flags. We conducted an experiment with 348 American participants, exposing them to a randomised order of true and false news headlines related to COVID-19, with and without warning flags and explanation text. Our findings suggest that warning flags, whether alone or accompanied by explanatory text, effectively reduce the perceived accuracy of fake news and the intent to share such headlines. Interestingly, our study also suggests that incorporating explanatory text in misinformation warning systems could significantly enhance their trustworthiness, emphasising the importance of transparency and user comprehension in combating fake news on social media.