Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267949 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Paper No. W22/18
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
We study how social proximity between the sender and the receiver of information shapes the effectiveness of preventive health behaviour campaigns and the persistence of misinformation. We implement a field experiment among a representative sample of slum residents in two major Indian cities characterized by Hindu-Muslim tensions. We show that informative messages are effective at improving evidence-based behavior, but not non-evidence-based behavior. These findings do not differ by social proximity, signalled by religion. However, when sender and receiver share the same religion, the intervention significantly reduces misinformation carrying in-group salience, highlighting the role of social proximity in fighting misinformation.
Subjects: 
Misinformation
Religion
Identity
Social proximity
India
Social media
COVID-19
randomized field experiment
JEL: 
C93
D91
I12
I15
O12
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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