Misinformation Exposure Beyond Traditional Feeds: Evidence from WhatsApp Deactivation Experiments in the Global South

.title[
# <span style="font-size: 70%;"> Misinformation Exposure Beyond Traditional Feeds: Evidence from WhatsApp Deactivation Experiments in the Global South</span>
]
.author[
### Tiago Ventura<br> <br><span style="font-size: 80%;">Georgetown University </span>
]
.date[
### <span style="font-size: 80%;"> <br>CSMaP Meeting - Sept 23, 2023 </span>
]

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<div class="my-footer"><span>Tiago Ventura (Georgetown University) &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp CSMaP Meeting</span></div>

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## Presentation Today

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# Motivation

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### Social Media, Politics and Misinformation

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.content-box-gray[Identify the causal effects of **.red[WhatsApp usage]** on **.red[exposure to online rumors]** and its downstream effects on **.red[belief accuracy]** and **.red[political attitudes]**]

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## Deactivation Studies

.pull-left[
.center[Facebook Deactivation in the US [(Alcott et al., 2020)](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20190658)]
]

.center[Facebook Deactivation in Bosnia and Herzegovina [(Asimovic et. al, 2022)](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2022819118)]
]

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### Multimedia Deactivation Experiment in Brazil, 2022

- Disable their automatic download of media on WhatsApp.
- Do not purposefully click and watch any media on WhatsApp.

- **Start:** Three weeks before general election in Brazil.
- **End:** three days after the voting day.

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# Overview of the Experiment

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## Recruitment

**Method:** Facebook Ads targeting adults Brazil

**Started Recruitment:** September 8th

**Number of respondents:** 1,947

**Screening variables:**

+ Willingness to join: .red[1,8861 participants]
  
  + More 5min WhatsApp daily

+ Only WhatsApp mobile
  
  + More than 2 min to complete recruitment + other quality controls

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## Treatment Assignment

**Start**: September 15.

**Treatment**:

- Turn off the automatic download.
- Three .red[weeks] without consuming any multimedia.
  
**Control**: Three .red[days] without consuming any multimedia.

**Invited**: 1,135 respondents

**Enrolled**: 773 respondents

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## Deactivation

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## Intervention

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## Compliance

**Compliance Tasks:**

- Screenshots of WhatsApp storage intormation

- Every week + final survey

- After the  first compliance check, the control group was re-activated

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## Compliance II

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## Outcomes

**Self-Reported Exposure and Accuracy Judgment**

- False Rumors published on fact-checking webpages during the month of the experiment + True News stories headlines from mainstream media.

**Polarization**

- Affective polarization (Feeling Thermometer).
  - Social Polarization (Willingness to engage with outgroup voter).
  - Issue Polarization (Abortion, gun control, etc..).
  - Perceptions about ideological polarization ('Where do I observe the two main candidates?').

**Subjective Well-being**

- How did you feel for the past three weeks? (Happy, Anxious, etc...).

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# Results

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### First-Stage Results

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### Effects on Exposure to Misinformation Rumors (H1)

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### Reduction in exposure is large for false news (H1)

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### Effects on Belief Accuracy (H2)

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### Effects on Polarization & Subjective Well-Being (H3 & H4)

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## Additional Analyses  (Non Pre-Registered)

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### Exposure and Partisanship

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### Belief Accuracy Conditional on WhatsApp usage for Politics

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### Polarization Outcomes

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## Discussion

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## Extension: Multi-Country Deactivation Studies

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- **Summary**: Multicountry extension across three major Global South countries; Brazil (In the field), India and South Africa
- **Stronger Treatment**: Replicate Multimedia + Time Reduction
- **More statistical power**: ~ 2500 participants across the three countries.  
--

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## Experimental Conditions

- **Types of partial deactivation**
   -  Time: Limit daily WhatsApp usage to 10 minutes 
   -  Multimedia: Do not consume multimedia content received via WhatsApp

- **Treatment and control**
 
 - Treatment: Change settings and  behavior for .red[4 week (one month)] leading up to elections in South Africa and India
 - Control: Change only behavior for .red[3 days] a month before election

- **2x2 design**

|Treatment|Control|
|----------------|--------------|
| Time Treatment | Time Control |
| Media Treatment | Media Control|

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## Treatment Time Intervention & Compliance

```
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.pull-left[
.center[
#### Monitoring Behavior

<img src="ss_ttime_actualsubject_lightmode.png" width="60%" />
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## Treatment Media Intervention & Compliance

.pull-right[
.center[
#### Adding Friction
<img src="ss_tmedia_examplereal_dlpost.png" width="60%" />
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#### Monitoring Behavior

```
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```

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