Perceiving Fact-Checks as Biased but Nevertheless Persuaded? Effects of Fact-Checking News Delivered by Partisan Media (Study 3)

Results from Study 1 (South Korea) and Study 2 (United States) collectively suggested the evidence of persuasive effects of fact-checking news by partisan media, yet at the same time, partisans perceive such corrections to be biased against their ideological position. The bias perception of fact-checking news was higher when one’s ideological strengths were stronger, and the source (rather than contents) of the corrective information is at odds with one’s own position, the pattern of which is largely consistent with the HME. Yet both Study 1 and Study 2 did not directly address the underlying nature of such effects, leaving us additional questions regarding its possible mechanisms and boundary conditions. Study 3 attempts to critically test possible mechanisms of the diverging effect of partisan fact-checking news exposure, in which corrective information exposure produces increased bias perception while it also produces positive persuasive effects.