Debating the Truth: The Impact of Fact-Checking During Electoral Debates

Abstract

How does fact-checking influence individuals’ attitudes and evaluations of political candidates? Fact-checking plays an increasingly important role in U.S. elections, yet we know little about its impact on voters. To answer this question, I conduct an experiment utilizing one political debate from the 2013 New Jersey Gubernatorial race in combination with fact-checks that offer either confirming information or corrective information to determine how fact-checking influences evaluations of candidates. I find that evaluations of the candidate’s debate performance and evaluations of the debate winner are improved by the presence of a fact-check that confirms the accuracy of a candidates’ statement and lowered by fact-checks that state that a candidate is being dishonest. Moreover, respondents indicate greater willingness to vote for a candidate when the fact-check indicates that the candidate is being honest. These findings suggest that fact-checking can influence people’s evaluations of political events.