Are you sure? A pop-up makes people reconsider sharing false news, but also slows true news

Interventions based on accuracy salience can reduce the spread of misinformation on social media. We conducted three pre-registered studies testing whether a pop-up asking “Are you sure you want to share this news? It could be fake”, after people choose to share a headline, changes their intention. Participants were more likely to reconsider sharing false than true news. Additionally, the less accurate a headline was perceived to be, the more likely they were to change their sharing intention. Yet, this intervention also reduced the diffusion of true news, although to a lesser extent than false ones.