The Effects of Ideological and Ethnoracial Identity on Political (Mis)Information.

ABSTRACT: There is much concern today about the spread of fake news and the misinformation it can produce among the public. In this article, we investigate how the American public interprets accurate and inaccurate statements from the news. Moving beyond partisanship, we theorize that ideological and ethnoracial identities also shape individuals' interpretations of the news. We argue that people have incentives to interpret information they encounter in ways that favor their ideological and ethnoracial ingroups and that these incentives are particularly strong when ideological and ethnoracial identities align. Using a survey that asks respondents to classify statements from news stories as facts or opinions, we find support for these hypotheses. Liberals and conservatives, and white, Black, and Hisp

SUBMITTER: Crowder-Meyer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8643655 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature