Who believes ‘fake news’? Regardless of age and politics, people who endorse lies are aware they could be made up, research says

Northeastern researchers say that when confronted with “fake news,” Republicans and younger people are more likely to say they believe the false headlines than Democrats and older people.

But across the board, participants who were incorrect about news headlines being true or false had an inkling they were wrong, lead author and Northeastern professor Briony-Swire Thompson says.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications Psychology and goes against the idea that individuals who endorse misinformation strongly believe it to be true, she says.

“When people take false information to be true, they are aware that they could well be wrong,” says Swire-Thompson, a political science and psychology professor who directs the Psychology of Misinformation Lab and faculty at the Network Science Institute.