Study reveals impact of concern about misinformation on Americans’ media consumption habits

Most Americans are aware of fake news and misinformation. Ina new studyin the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, researchers from the Annenberg School for Communication sought to uncover whether the threat of misinformation drives Americans to seek out news sources that reflect their own political beliefs.

The study finds that Democrats, older individuals, and those with higher education levels are more concerned about misinformation in general and that, compared to Republicans, Democrats, in particular, are more likely to turn to partisan media sources when their concern with misinformation is greater.

Through analyses of nationally representative surveys of American adults, the researchers, led by Dolores Albarracín, the Amy Gutmann Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor and director of the Division of Communication Science at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, also finds that a person's perceived ability to distinguish between accurate and fake news does not affect how often they seek out news from partisan news sources.

Over the course of a year, the research team carried out three surveys assessing Democrats' and Republicans' concern about misinformation, how this concern influenced their media habits, and even whether a person's perceived ability to detect accurate news from fake news affected this relationship.

The surveys allowed the researchers to analyze how the partisan bent of particular media sources-such as Breitbart News on the right or MSNBC on the left-interacted with respondents' age, education, gender, and political affiliation.

The researchers found that both Democrats and Republicans consume more mainstream media than partisan media, and that, among Democrats, higher concern about misinformation was associated with higher use of liberal-leaning sources. In general, the confidence in one's ability to discern accurate news from fake news did not affect individuals' desire to seek out partisan media.

"Our findings underscore the challenges in addressing misinformation," says Albarracín. "Raising awareness alone may not be sufficient and could have unintended consequences on media consumption habits."

Read more at Annenberg School for Communication.