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Conservatives’ susceptibility to political misperceptions

"False Flag Conspiracy Theories: Psyche, Society, and the Internet"

Sci Adv. 2021 Jun; 7(23): eabf1234.
Published online 2021 Jun 2. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf1234
PMCID: PMC8172130
PMID: 34078599

R. Kelly Garrett* and Robert M. Bond
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Supplementary Materials

Conservatives are less able to distinguish truths and falsehoods than liberals, and the information environment helps explain why.

Abstract

The idea that U.S. conservatives are uniquely likely to hold misperceptions is widespread but has not been systematically assessed. Research has focused on beliefs about narrow sets of claims never intended to capture the richness of the political information environment. Furthermore, factors contributing to this performance gap remain unclear. We generated an unique longitudinal dataset combining social media engagement data and a 12-wave panel study of Americans’ political knowledge about high-profile news over 6 months. Results confirm that conservatives have lower sensitivity than liberals, performing worse at distinguishing truths and falsehoods. This is partially explained by the fact that the most widely shared falsehoods tend to promote conservative positions, while corresponding truths typically favor liberals. The problem is exacerbated by liberals’ tendency to experience bigger improvements in sensitivity than conservatives as the proportion of partisan news increases. These results underscore the importance of reducing the supply of right-leaning misinformation.

INTRODUCTION

Public opinion polls suggest that American conservatives are prone to political misperceptions, typically claiming belief in more falsehoods than liberals (1–6). Some scholars further argue that this pattern is evidence that conservatives are more biased than liberals (7). If true, these observations would have important consequences. Holding accurate political knowledge is fundamental to democracy (8), and ideological differences in citizens’ understanding of empirical evidence about politically important topics are potentially destabilizing to democracy itself (9, 10). Effective decision-making depends on having a common understanding of the reality to which citizens and lawmakers must collectively respond (11).

Despite the importance of claims about ideological differences in belief accuracy, however, empirical evidence of conservatives’ susceptibility to misperceptions is limited....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8172130/