Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin finished the data collection for the lateral reading study. This research examines a novel approach to empowering internet users to better discern trustworthy from untrustworthy sources through a video-based intervention.
Unlike traditional vertical reading—which involves an in-depth look at a single website—lateral reading is a strategy used by professional fact-checkers. It involves opening new browser tabs to seek external information about a website’s source, providing a broader context for evaluating credibility.
In our experiment, we compared the source-focused lateral reading strategy with two other conditions: a claim-focused online search condition--a method recently found to sometimes backfire, and a control condition that did not receive any training.
We also investigated how the intervention’s effects on immediate trustworthiness judgments might decay over a two-week period. The study was conducted using a nationally representative sample of German internet users recruited by YouGov, involving over 2,600 participants in the experiment. Additionally, web tracking data from around 430 participants allowes us to assess changes in the prevalence of untrustworthy news sources in their media diets and their adoption of lateral reading techniques.
We look forward to sharing the findings as we analyze the collected data.
