Fake news about climate change refers to fabricated information that mimics the appearance of legitimate reporting but is intended to mislead consumers. In light of concerns about fake news regarding climate change and other topics, researchers and media providers have been searching for ways to limit its spread and influence. This study tested the effect of two simple interventions, both of which primed critical thinking, on individuals’ evaluation of the credibility of real and fake news about climate change on Facebook. Through an online experiment (n = 2,750 participants), participants either read a series of guidelines for evaluating news online, or read and then rated the importance of each guideline; a control group was not exposed to guidelines of any type. We found that participants exposed to both types of guidelines reported a reduced likelihood to trust, like, and share fake news about climate change on Facebook. Importantly, exposure to these guidelines did not diminish individuals’ likelihood to trust, like, or share legitimate climate news. The effect sizes for both types of intervention were small. However, because of the scale and speed at which social media operates, even a small reduction in users’ likelihood to trust, like, and share fake news could be meaningful and impactful.

有关气候变化的虚假新闻是指模仿合法报道的外观但旨在误导消费者的虚假信息。考虑到对有关气候变化和其他主题的虚假新闻的担忧，研究人员和媒体提供者一直在寻找限制其传播和影响的方法。这项研究测试了两种简单的干预措施的影响，这两种干预措施都引发了批判性思维，对个人对Facebook上有关气候变化的真实和虚假新闻的可信度的评估。通过在线实验（n = 2,750名参与者），参与者要么阅读了一系列在线评估新闻的指南，要么阅读并评估了每个指南的重要性；对照组未暴露于任何类型的指南。我们发现，同时接触这两种类型指南的参与者报告说，他们在Facebook上信任和分享有关气候变化的假新闻的可能性降低。重要的是，接触这些准则并不会减少个人信任，喜欢或分享的可能性合法的气候新闻。两种干预措施的效果均很小。但是，由于社交媒体的运作规模和速度，即使用户信任，分享和分享假新闻的可能性略有降低，也可能是有意义和有影响力的。