Event-Related Potentials in Response to Fake News Correction: Pilot Study

Fake news has become a serious problem with the development of the Internet and social networks. Due to their rapid spread and influence on people's opinions and decision-making, the need to combat media fakes become evident. This pilot study investigated behavioral and neuropsychological responses to fake news corrections that indicate the presence of the fake. We used medical- and healthcare-related news headlines, both fake and accurate, and employed a short-format debunking correction (Truth/Fake) from authoritative and non-authoritative medical sources. 22 participants took part in the pilot study, assessing their trust in news headlines and the willingness to share them with others before and after the correction, while the electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded. We hypothesized that the trust in the news and the willingness to share them would increase after the Truth-correction (indicating that the statement is correct) from the authoritative source, and would decrease after the Fake- correction (indicating that the statement is false) from the same source. On the neuropsychological level we assumed that the correction would elicit the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN), and its amplitude would be larger in response to the Fake-correction, than to the Truth- correction, and would correlate with the magnitude of an individual opinion change. The results showed the significant effect of the corrections on the trust in headlines and willingness to share them. Authoritative Truth-corrections increased trust and willingness to share, while authoritative Fake-corrections decreased trust and willingness to share headlines. The EEG data showed the FRN/ P600 responses to the corrections. However, no significant differences between the FRN amplitudes across experimental conditions were found, and the component only correlated with the magnitude of willingness to share changes.