The spread of ‘fake news,’ information that mimics credible reporting in format but not in content or intent, poses potential threats to public health and democracy by misinforming citizens. Understanding whether and how fake news influences individuals’ policy-relevant beliefs and decisions is needed to inform policies and practices to address it. In a preregistered experiment, we ask how exposure to fake climate news casting doubt on the existence of climate change influences individuals’ expressed belief in climate change, their estimate of the scientific consensus regarding it, and their overall trust in scientists. We find little effect of exposure to fake climate news on any of our three dependent variables. Effect sizes associated with exposure were very small, and demographics and political ideology were stronger predictors of beliefs. Our findings suggest exposure to fake climate news is unlikely to strongly influence climate skepticism.

中文翻译：

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接触有关气候变化的假新闻的影响有限

“假新闻”的传播模仿了可信的报道格式，但没有内容或意图，通过误导市民，对公共卫生和民主构成了潜在威胁。需要了解虚假新闻是否以及如何影响个人与政策相关的信念和决定，以为解决该问题提供政策和实践依据。在一个预先注册的实验中，我们询问暴露于假气候新闻是否对气候变化的存在产生怀疑，这会如何影响个人对气候变化表达的信念，他们对此的科学共识的估计以及对科学家的整体信任。我们发现暴露于假气候新闻对我们的三个因变量几乎没有影响。与接触有关的影响大小很小，人口统计学和政治意识形态是信念的更强预测指标。