True, justified, belief? Partisanship weakens the positive effect of news media literacy on fake news detection.

ABSTRACT: To investigate how people assess whether politically consistent news is real or fake, two studies (N = 1,008; N = 1,397) with adult American participants conducted in 2020 and 2022 utilized a within-subjects experimental design to investigate perceptions of news accuracy. When a mock Facebook post with either fake (Study 1) or real (Study 2) news content was attributed to an alternative (vs. a mainstream) news outlet, it was, on average, perceived to be less accurate. Those with beliefs reflecting News Media Literacy demonstrated greater sensitivity to the outlet's status. This relationship was itself contingent on the strength of the participant's partisan identity. Strong partisans high in News Media Literacy defended the accuracy of politically consistent content, even whi

SUBMITTER: Sude DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10562704 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature