Certifiably True: The Impact of Self-Certification on Misinformation

Abstract

Combating the spread of misinformation at scale requires platform-level tools that can address the intentional sharing of misinformation without censorship. Across two pre-registered experiments, we test the potential of self-certification—a novel, user-driven mechanism that allows individuals to voluntarily signal that the information they are sharing is true, backed by their own money. In Experiment 1 (N = 1,490 social media users; 29,800 responses), participants chose to share or not share news headlines (control) or were given an additional option to share the headline and certify that its claim is true. These certifications were either cheap talk (costless) or backed by their own money (costly). Introducing costless certification increased participants’ sharing of true information, while costly certification both increased the sharing of true headlines and decreased the sharing of false headlines, primarily the interesting ones. Both forms of certification increased the average number of shared headlines. In Experiment 2 (N = 2,003 participants; 48,072 responses), participants were presented news headlines depending on their condition either without additional information (control), or with information revealing whether they were previously shared with or without self-certification. When headlines were labeled as certified (costly or costless), participants perceived both false and true headline claims to be more accurate. Our findings suggest that self-certification can increase the quality of information shared, increase sharing activity, and enhance perceptions of accuracy.