September 9, 2026 | Noon
Natalie Stroud (The University of Texas at Austin)
Online misinformation attracts intense concern yet makes up only a small fraction of people’s media diets. Many overestimate their exposure, a misperception linked to important democratic attitudes such as cynicism and media mistrust. This talk will describe misinformation misperceptions and experiments that reduce them. A longitudinal experiment with local newsroom partners led people to calibrate their estimates of misinformation exposure while increasing news trust. A second online experiment tested lighter-touch interventions, including a brief social media audit and a corrective article, that also affected misinformation exposure assessments, as well as misinformation concern and, for some, support for restrictive policies. The talk will summarize what we’ve learned and set the stage for a discussion of what remains to be investigated.