Is there an economic incentive for celebrities and well-known media firms to commingle falsehoods into news stories? We conducted five experiments, plus a field validation using secondary data. When presented by celebrities and well-known media firms, a commingled partisan falsehood in an otherwise true news story significantly increased viewing and sharing intentions among politically aligned viewers. The effect was weaker but significant when we replaced the celebrity with an unknown speaker and disappeared when both the celebrity and the well-known firm were replaced by unknowns. This effect was explained by confirmation bias and the viewer’s belief that the falsehood was true. In contrast, a false news story focusing on the same falsehood increased viewing and sharing intentions only when presented by unknowns, with viewers’ belief playing a limited role. The field study found a significantly positive relationship between a commingled partisan falsehood in videos of well-known media firms and actual viewership. We conclude that commingled partisan falsehoods provide a significant viewership increase for celebrities and well-known media firms, creating an economic incentive for lying and posing complex challenges in the fake news era. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in this area for policymakers and media firms.

中文翻译：

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为观众撒谎：党派谎言的混合增加了新闻媒体的观看和分享


名人和知名媒体公司是否有经济动机将谎言掺入新闻报道中？我们进行了五次实验，并使用二手数据进行了现场验证。当名人和知名媒体公司报道时，原本真实的新闻报道中混合了党派谎言，会显着增加政治立场一致的观众的观看和分享意图。当我们用不知名的演讲者替换名人时，效果较弱，但很显着；当名人和知名公司都被未知的人替换时，效果消失。这种效应可以通过确认偏差和观众相信谎言是真实的来解释。相比之下，关注相同谎言的虚假新闻报道只有在未知的情况下才会增加观看和分享意图，而观众的信念发挥的作用有限。实地研究发现，知名媒体公司视频中混合的党派谎言与实际收视率之间存在显着的正相关关系。我们的结论是，混合的党派谎言使名人和知名媒体公司的收视率显着增加，为撒谎创造了经济动力，并在假新闻时代提出了复杂的挑战。我们讨论了政策制定者和媒体公司在这一领域面临的挑战和机遇。