Boosting Media Literacy: Lateral Reading and Other Tools to Counter Misinformation

Parallel to system-level efforts to address online misinformation—such as platform moderation and regulatory interventions—individuals can be empowered to navigate digital information environments more competently. Several individual-level interventions have been proposed to improve users’ media literacy and accuracy discernment, including strategies that encourage verifying the trustworthiness of claims and sources through web searches. However, recent evidence suggests that claim-based online verification can sometimes backfire, and major gaps remain regarding the effectiveness of media literacy interventions across different populations and contexts. In this talk, I present results from a study testing two media literacy interventions that rely on online verification strategies: a source-focused lateral reading video intervention designed to boost internet users’ competence to discern trustworthy from untrustworthy news sources and a claim-focused online search strategy that instructs users to search for evidence behind specific claims. I will also situate our findings within the broader research landscape on interventions to counter misinformation.

(Co-authors on the project: Lisa Oswald, Anastasia Kozyreva, Pietro Leonardo Nickl, Stefan M. Herzog, and Ralph Hertwig)