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Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Time is the fire in which message effects burn: Decay and sustenance of correction effects over time, Journal of Communication. (2025+). [OSF Repository] [Top Student Paper Award at ICA'2025 (Photo)]
    Authors: Je Hoon Chae, Tim Groeling, Hyunjin Song
    Abstract

    The rapid dissemination of misinformation has raised concerns about its persistence despite corrective efforts, as the influence of fact-checking often diminishes quickly. This study explores “time” as a central theoretical and methodological construct in understanding the effects of fact-checking interventions. Across two large-scale, preregistered panel experiments (N = 6,983), we examine the temporal dynamics of both the persuasive and unintended consequences of factual corrections. Results show that while fact-checks yield immediate belief updating, their effects largely fade within two weeks and do not produce durable belief echoes. In Study 2, we introduce a novel design treating time lag as an experimental treatment and show that simple interventions aimed at increasing the temporal accessibility of corrections—termed “accuracy reminders”—significantly extend the durability of their effects. These findings reconceptualize correction effects as inherently temporal processes, advancing communication theory and offering scalable, time-sensitive strategies for sustaining the influence of fact-checking in dynamic information environments.

  • Perceiving AI intervention does not compromise the persuasive effect of fact-checking, New Media & Society. (2024+). [OSF Repository] [Top Paper Award at NCA'2024 (Program)]
    Authors: Je Hoon Chae, David Tewksbury
    Abstract

    Efforts to scale up fact-checking through technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are increasingly being suggested and tested. This study examines whether previously observed effects of reading fact-checks remain constant when readers are aware of AI's involvement in the fact-checking process. We conducted three online experiments (N = 3,978), exposing participants to fact-checks identified as either human-generated or AI-assisted, simulating cases where AI fully generates the fact-check or automatically retrieves human fact-checks. Our findings indicate that the persuasive effect of fact-checking, specifically in increasing truth discernment, persists even among participants without a positive prior attitude toward AI. Additionally, in some cases, awareness of AI's role reduced perceived political bias in fact-checks among Republicans. Finally, neither AI-generated nor human fact-checks significantly affected participants' feelings toward or their perceptions of the competence of the targeted politicians.

  • Perceiving as biased but nevertheless persuaded? Effects of fact-checking news delivered by partisan media, Political Psychology, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2024): 69-89. [OSF Repository] [GitHub Repository]
    Authors: Je Hoon Chae, Sang Yup Lee, Hyunjin Song
    Abstract

    The effectiveness of and its boundary conditions regarding fact–checking news exposure have significant normative and practical implications. While many of the prior studies have focused on the attitudinal consequences of fact–checking news delivered by neutral third parties such as fact–check organizations, relatively less is known as to the effect of fact–checking news delivered by partisan media. Based on the frameworks of motivated reasoning and the hostile-media effect, we investigate the possibility of decoupling between attitudinal persuasion and perceptual backfire by fact–checking news by partisan media—that is, exposure to fact–checking news increases bias perception of such news yet nevertheless attitudinally persuades audiences. Based on a series of original experiments conducted in South Korea and in the United States, we find consistent support for our prediction, in that exposure to fact–checking news produces the corrective effects, yet at the same time perceived bias of the fact–checking news systematically varies as a function of the ideological slant of partisan media.

Miscellaneous

“Going up a mountain track, I fell to thinking.


Approach everything rationally, and you become harsh. Pole along in the stream of emotions, and you will be swept away by the current. Give free rein to your desires, and you become uncomfortably confined. It is not a very agreeable place to live, this world of ours.


When the unpleasantness increases, you want to draw yourself up to some place where life is easier. It is just at the point when you first realise that life will be no more agreeable no matter what heights you may attain, that a poem may be given birth, or a picture created.”

— Natsume Sōseki, “Kusamakura”