Research

The consumption of news through spoken text has seen a notable increase, and major news outlets increasingly use text-to-speech technologies to offer spoken-text versions of articles. In four preregistered experiments (N = 2292) involving real-world news, we find that audiences consistently rate spoken news as more trustworthy, truthful, and accurate than news they read themselves. This hearing-is-believing effect is driven by listening fluency—the ease of listening (compared to reading)—which enhances trust in the news. This effect weakens or reverses when listening fluency is disrupted, because of background noise or format.

Across one secondary data analysis, five controlled experiments, and two supplemental studies (N = 2794), we demonstrate that individuals are judged as less immoral when wasting vice foods (e.g., cola, chips) compared to virtue foods (e.g., milk, rice). This effect is driven by ease of justification—the strong association between vice food consumption and negative emotions or self-control failure serves as a readily available excuse for rationalizing unethical, wasteful behavior. However, when an objective justification cue is provided (e.g., the ingredients are not fresh), the difference in moral judgment between the two types of food waste diminishes. Additionally, priming moral identity reduces discard intentions for virtue foods more than for vice foods. These findings indicate that there may not be a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to combating food waste and that food type should be considered when developing moral-based interventions.