Misinformation and morality: Encountering fake-news headlines makes them seem less unethical to publish and share
Effron and Raj report four main experiments, two of them preregistered, and a pilot. Repeated exposure to a fake-news headline made it seem less unethical to publish and share, even when the headline was labelled false and the participant did not believe it. Lower perceived unethicality went with greater willingness to approve of the headline online, and participants shared repeated headlines more than new ones. The authors suggest repetition may make blatant misinformation feel intuitively true, which reduces moral condemnation.
Effron and Raj report four main experiments, two of them preregistered, and a pilot. Repeated exposure to a fake-news headline made it seem less unethical to publish and share, even when the headline was labelled false and the participant did not believe it. Lower perceived unethicality went with greater willingness to approve of the headline online, and participants shared repeated headlines more than new ones. The authors suggest repetition may make blatant misinformation feel intuitively true, which reduces moral condemnation.
Written from the abstract, London Business School research record and Crossref record, 2026-10-31.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Effron, D. A., & Raj, M. (2020). Misinformation and morality: Encountering fake-news headlines makes them seem less unethical to publish and share. Psychological Science, 31(1), 75-87. doi:10.1177/0956797619887896 https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619887896