Fighting False Information Through Radio: A Pre-Analysis Plan for a Laboratory Experiment in Central African Republic

The dissemination of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (MDM) is one of the major challenges facing publics today, with potentially negative consequences for security, public health, and democratic accountability, among other areas. In light of these threats, myriad efforts attempt to slow the spread of MDM through media literacy campaigns. One such effort is Stop At`en`e, a project by Radio Ndeke Luka (RNL) in Central African Republic (RCA), which seeks to educate about the threats of false information, how to spot it, and how to evaluate information generally, especially before sharing it with others. This research project seeks to better understand how Central Africans make decisions about sharing information obtained directly or indirectly from mass media and the extent to which cues from RNL’s anti-MDM efforts impact those decisions. We measure the impact of these various considerations through a laboratory experiment, to be conducted in Bangui.