Article | Open Access
AI Agency in Fact-Checking: Role-Based Machine Heuristics and Publics’ Conspiratorial Orientation
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Abstract: With a focus on role-based (fact-checker and author) agencies and machine heuristics conceptualized by the modality, agency, interactivity, and navigability model, this study examines the comparative effect of AI (vs. human) agencies in debunking conspiracy theory news. Using a 2x2 online experiment with 506 participants, the study explores how conspiratorial orientation influences different role-based AI agencies’ relationships with machine heuristics, and therefore news credibility perception and corrective action intentions. Results reveal that AI (vs. human) role-based agencies have separate but also interaction effects on heuristic activation. Moreover, potentially because conspiratorial orientation originates from skepticism towards humans, AI fact-checkers can be associated with higher corrective action intention for individuals with high conspiratorial orientation by activating AI fact-checker’s positive machine heuristics.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; conspiratorial orientation; conspiracy theory; fact-checking; machine heuristics
Published:
Issue:
Vol 13 (2025): AI, Media, and People: The Changing Landscape of User Experiences and Behaviors (In Progress)
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© Duo Lan, Yicheng Zhu, Meiyu Liu, Chuge He. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.