How Susceptible Are Americans to Misinformation?

Survey participants were presented with 20 headlines – ten true and ten false, and it turned out that they correctly classified the headline as true or false in about two-thirds of the news.

The average number of correctly classified titles is 13 out of 20, with similar accuracy for true and false titles; the average for each set is about 7 out of 10.

The false headline most Americans identified as correct is the following: "Republicans Divided on Trumps Behavior, Democrats Widely Critical."

The actual headline, which the Americans marked as false to the greatest extent, was: "Attitudes towards the EU are mostly positive, both in Europe and outside.”

While 61 percent of Americans correctly identify this headline as accurate, 39 percent incorrectly say it is fake.

When it comes to fake AI-generated headlines designed to depict common disinformation techniques, Americans misclassify two headlines that focus on mistrust of government: "Government Officials Manipulated Stock Prices to Hide Scandals" and "Government Manipulates Public Perception of genetic engineering to make people more accepting of such techniques."

Around 45 percent of Americans incorrectly say that the headline "Government officials manipulated stock prices to hide scandals" is true.

Republicans are more susceptible to misinformation than Democrats

There is a significant relationship between partisanship and susceptibility to misinformation.

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Republicans did worse on the disinformation test than Democrats and people who support neither Republicans nor Democrats.

Democrats and independents fared quite similarly on the test.

One-third of Democrats and 28 percent of independents are in the highest-scoring group, compared with 14 percent of Republicans.

Several false headlines have fooled most Republicans.

"Government manipulates public perception of genetic engineering to make people more accepting of such techniques" - 60 percent of Republicans mistakenly mark this as actual news, then "New study: Leftists more likely to lie to get higher pay" - 56 percent of Republicans wrongly marked as accurate, as well as "Left-wing extremism does more harm to the world than terrorism, says the UN Report" - 54 percent of Republicans.

Less than 40 percent of Democrats incorrectly mark these three headings as correct.

It turns out that Democrats and Republicans are more likely to mark as accurate those headlines that reinforce positive feelings about their own party or negative views about the opposing party—regardless of whether the headlines are real or fake.

For example, as many as 82 percent of Republicans, compared to 67 percent of Democrats, marked as correct the headline "International relations experts and the American public agree: America is less respected globally," since such a headline implied a negative view of the current the American president, Democrat Joseph Biden.

The headline is from 2018, when Donald Trump was president, but respondents were not given the dates of the headlines.

On the other hand, 80 percent of Democrats, compared to 68 percent of Republicans, circled "Democrats more than Republicans support federal spending on scientific research" as correct.

AP news consumers are the best at identifying news

YouGov investigated the link between news sources and respondents ability to spot false headlines.

You Gov showed respondents 56 news sources in four categories: broadcast, print, digital and social media, to say which news source they used in the past month.

Most Americans, 85 percent, use more than one news source.

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Americans who consume news from The Associated Press are the best at identifying headlines.

Respondents who get their news from National Public Radio, Axios, HuffPost, and PBS also could detect whether the news is fake or true.

News consumers from MSNBC, The Hill, Reuters, Politico, and the Washington Post also fare relatively well on the test.

Those who get information on social networks like WhatsApp, Truth Social, Snapchat, and TikTok fared the worst.

Users of several right-leaning outlets, including OAN and Newsmax, also did very poorly on the test.

Most Americans feel they are exposed to fake news daily

Most Americans, 53 percent, say they see what they think is false or misleading information online daily.

Seven out of 10 adults, or 71 percent, believe they are exposed to misinformation at least once a week.

Older Americans are more likely to believe that they are presented with lies on the Internet daily.

Two-thirds of respondents over 65 say they see misinformation daily, compared to 37 percent of 18- to 30-year-olds.

Three-quarters of Americans, 75 percent, are very confident or somewhat confident in their ability to tell real news from fake news.

Respondents who are very or somewhat confident that they can distinguish real from fake news score better on the test than those who are unsure.

Three in 10 people who are confident they can spot fake news fall into the highest scoring category, compared to 12 percent of less confident people.

Americans under 45 are less adept at spotting fake news

Americans in the 18 to 45 age group score worse than older Americans on the misinformation test.

They score an average of 12 out of 20 points, compared to 15 for older adults.

The research found that people under 45 are more likely to suspect misinformation where there is none and less likely to believe news headlines in general than people over 45.

For example, the truthful headline, "Hyatt to remove small bottles from hotel bathrooms," was rated as correct by only 55 percent of 18-44 year-olds, compared to 72 percent of Americans over 45.

Theres another reason why Americans under 45, who are mostly digitally literate, scored worse than their elders on this disinformation test.

Its a fact that people under 45 spend more time online than people 45 and over, and the amount of time we spend online is closely related to our susceptibility to misinformation.

Only 23 percent of 18- to 44-year-olds report spending two or fewer hours of recreational time online daily, compared to 44 percent of those 45 and older.

Others spend more time online.

In addition to spending more time online, people in the 18-45 age group use social media as a news source to a greater extent.

Research has shown that people who use social media as a news source do not perform as well on the misinformation test.