Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP12220 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details   |   Bibliographic Reference

Full Details

Title: Facts, Alternative Facts, and Fact Checking in Times of Post-Truth Politics

Author(s): Oscar Barrera, Sergei Guriev, Emeric Henry and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya

Publication Date: August 2017

Keyword(s): alternative facts, elections, fact checking, fake news and voting

Programme Area(s): Development Economics and Public Economics

Abstract: How effective is fact checking in countervailing "alternative facts," i.e., misleading statements by politicians? In a randomized online experiment during the 2017 French presidential election campaign, we subjected subgroups of 2480 French voters to alternative facts by the extreme-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, and/or corresponding facts about the European refugee crisis from official sources. We find that: (i) alternative facts are highly persuasive; (ii) fact checking improves factual knowledge of voters (iii) but it does not affect policy conclusions or support for the candidate; (iv) exposure to facts alone does not decrease support for the candidate, even though voters update their knowledge. We find evidence consistent with the view that at least part of the effect can be explained by raising salience of the immigration issue.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=12220

Bibliographic Reference

Barrera, O, Guriev, S, Henry, E and Zhuravskaya, E. 2017. 'Facts, Alternative Facts, and Fact Checking in Times of Post-Truth Politics'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=12220