The Power of the Crowd: How the Public Can Both Spoil and Improve Social Media as a Source of Information...

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Florian Stöckel (University of Exeter) Sabrina Stöckli (Bern University of Applied Sciences)

The Power of the Crowd

How the Public Can Both Spoil and Improve Social Media as a Source of Information

Florian Stöckel (University of Exeter), Sabrina Stöckli (Bern University of Applied Sciences), Benjamin A. Lyons (University of Utah) , Hannah Kroker (University of Edinburgh)

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English

Cambridge University Press
06 November 2025

Media studies; Political science & theory; Press & journalism; Digital lifestyle

Series: Elements in Experimental Political Science

This Element explores misinformation as a challenge for democracies, using experiments from Germany, Italy, and the UK to assess the role of user-generated corrections on social media.

A sample of more than 170,000 observations across a wide range of topics (COVID, climate change, 5G etc.) is used to test whether social corrections help reduce the perceived accuracy of false news and whether miscorrections decrease the credibility of true news. Corrections reduce the perceived accuracy of misinformation, but miscorrections can harm perceptions of true news. The Element also assesses the mechanisms of social corrections, finding evidence for recency effects rather than systematic processing. Additional analyses show the characteristics of individuals who have more difficulties identifying false news. Survey data is included on characteristics of people who write comments often. The conclusion highlights that social corrections can mislead, but also work as remedy. The Element ends with best practices for effective corrections.

By: Florian Stöckel (University of Exeter), Sabrina Stöckli (Bern University of Applied Sciences), Benjamin A. Lyons (University of Utah), Hannah Kroker (University of Edinburgh), Jason Reifler (University of Southampton)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 281g
ISBN: 9781009677172
ISBN 10: 1009677179
Series: Elements in Experimental Political Science
Pages: 98
Publication Date: 06 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Misinformation as a challenge for democracy; 2. Who believes false news?; 3. The core experimental setup; 4. Social corrections, miscorrections, and accuracy perceptions; 5. Who writes comments?; 6. Implications and outlook; References.