Conservatives more likely to believe false news, new study finds

[CousinIT]

(CNN)Political conservatives are more likely to believe untrue news reports than liberals are, researchers reported Wednesday.

It's the latest in a series of studies that show people on the political right tend to not only be targeted by fake news, but to believe it's correct.

The small but intensive study, conducted by communications specialists Kelly Garrett and Robert Bond at Ohio State University, shows more engaging but false stories tended to support beliefs held by conservatives, while viral news stories that were also true tended to support beliefs held by liberals.

It does not cover the pandemic period, although the research team is running a similar study now looking at pandemic information and misinformation..

"The idea that U.S. conservatives are uniquely likely to hold misperceptions is widespread but has not been systematically assessed," Bond and Garrett wrote in the journal Science Advances.

They came up with a system for analyzing news and social media reports, and used social media monitoring service YouGov to bounce the headlines off 1,200 volunteers who agreed to report their feelings about the reports between January and June of 2019.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/health/conservatives-false-news-study/index.html

[C_U_L8R]

1. And the inverse is also true

meaning they won't believe this. Or other data. Or science. Or fact.
It must be special living in a bubble of your own delusion.

[Ocelot II]

2. Quelle surprise.

[eShirl]

3. more gullible

[Elessar Zappa]

4. Now that's a shocker!

Next they’ll be telling us that conservatives have less empathy.

[Paladin]

5. Yet another report, from the Bureau Of Painfully-Obvious Facts. (nt)

[msfiddlestix]

8. Ha! you beat me to it!

Love the BOPOF nomenclature.

[msfiddlestix]

6. LOL! This is News? Gotta hand it over to who ever is getting paid to report the obvious

[CousinIT]

11. . . .

"The idea that U.S. conservatives are uniquely likely to hold misperceptions is widespread but has not been systematically assessed,"

Or that's what the article says. Definitely not news to sane people though.

[andym]

7. They've been gaslit for years and just the larger number of evangelicals among them

means believing a lot on faith.

[Wounded Bear]

9. It's what happens when people trust the source more than the data...

Critical thinking skills are not required when you get your news from "trusted sources."

[Haggard Celine]

10. They won't believe true stories because

facts have a liberal bias.

[Initech]

12. I'm shocked, shocked! Well not that shocked!