Predicting Audience Verification Intention: The impact of partisanship, source, importance, and information familiarity on willingness to verify headlines

Abstract

This study employed a 2 × 3 × 2 experiment in the United States to understand how headlines trigger willingness to verify information, manipulating partisan leaning, source credibility, and factuality. Based on evolutionary psychology, we also explored how perceived importance and information familiarity influence willingness to verify information for accuracy or confirmation of preexisting beliefs. Findings show no differences between accuracy (truth-seeking) and confirmation motivations, both driven mainly by importance. Conservatives report less intent to verify for both motivations and rely more strongly on authority cues (source credibility), while liberals rely on prior familiarity with content. Implications for news literacy efforts are discussed.