Data from: Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence

Misinformation can undermine a well-functioning democracy. For example,
public misconceptions about climate change can lead to lowered acceptance
of the reality of climate change and lowered support for mitigation
policies. This study experimentally explored the impact of misinformation
about climate change and tested several pre-emptive interventions designed
to reduce the influence of misinformation. We found that false-balance
media coverage (giving contrarian views equal voice with climate
scientists) lowered perceived consensus overall, although the effect was
greater among conservatives. Likewise, misinformation that confuses people
about the level of scientific agreement regarding anthropogenic global
warming (AGW) had a polarizing effect, with political conservatives
reducing their acceptance of AGW and political liberals increasing their
acceptance of AGW. However, we found that inoculating messages that (1)
explain the flawed argumentation technique used in the misinformation or
that (2) highlight the scientific consensus on climate change were
effective in neutralizing those adverse effects of misinformation. We
recommend that climate communication messages should take into account
ways in which scientific content can be distorted, and include pre-emptive
inoculation messages.

虚假信息会破坏运转良好的民主制度。例如，公众对气候变化的误解可能导致对气候变化现实的接受度下降，以及对减缓政策的支持度降低。
本研究通过实验探究了气候变化虚假信息的影响，并测试了若干旨在降低虚假信息影响力的预防性干预措施。研究发现，虚假平衡的媒体报道（即给予气候变化反对者与气候科学家同等话语权）总体上降低了公众对科学共识的感知，尽管这种效应在保守派群体中更为显著。
同样，那些混淆公众对人为全球变暖（AGW）科学共识程度认知的虚假信息具有极化效应：政治保守派降低了对AGW的接受度，而政治自由派则提高了对AGW的接受度。
然而，研究发现，两类接种式信息可有效中和上述虚假信息的负面影响：（1）解释虚假信息中使用的有缺陷论证技巧；（2）强调气候变化领域的科学共识。
研究建议，气候变化传播内容应考虑科学信息可能被扭曲的方式，并纳入预防性接种式信息。