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Fake news shared by private citizens is sweeping social media. A recent study showed that in the three months before the 2016 US Presidential election, 156 misleading news stories got just under 38 million shares on Facebook (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). To address this problem, we propose an intervention, the Pro-Truth Pledge (PTP), which draws on behavioral science research about what causes us to lie and how to prevent such deception, as well as successful strategies in promoting pro-social behaviors from the environmental movement. In taking the pledge, at ProTruthPledge.org, signees agree to abide by twelve behaviors:
* Verify: Fact-check information to confirm it is true before accepting and sharing it.
* Balance: Share the whole truth, even if some aspects do not support my opinion.
* Cite: Share my sources so that others can verify my information.
* Clarify: Distinguish between my opinion and the facts.
* Acknowledge: Acknowledge when others share true information, even when we disagree otherwise
* Reevaluate: Reevaluate if my information is challenged, retract it if I cannot verify it.
* Defend: Defend others when they come under attack for sharing true information, even when we disagree otherwise.
* Align: Align my opinions and my actions with true information.
* Fix: Ask people to retract information that reliable sources have disproved even if they are my allies.
* Educate: Compassionately inform those around me to stop using unreliable sources even if these sources support my opinion.
* Defer: Recognize the opinions of experts as more likely to be accurate when the facts are disputed.
* Celebrate: Celebrate those who retract incorrect statements and update their beliefs toward the truth.
The pledge guidelines encourage those who take the pledge to indicate that they did so by listing themselves in the public database of pledge-takers, posting about taking it on their social media, adding a pledge seal to their website and social media profiles, and noting every time they share an article on social media that they took the pledge. Taking the pledge serves as a form of public precommitment (see Logue, 1995), where one makes a response now that prevents subsequent impulsive choices. Pre-commitment (or public commitment in this case) is regarded as an effective strategy of behavioral influence (Embry &...