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This is interesting, but I think it's important to note one thing. Susceptibility to fake news != rate of believing fake news. This experiment seems to have mea

• mirroredfate1 8y ago
  That has got to be one of the most fascinating meta-comments I've ever read, give that the article goes on to say: > The researchers measured individual differences in thinking styles and found that regardless of the political party identification, when high need for cognition individuals were presented with fake news stories that were consistent with their ideology, they were even more likely than everyone else to judge the story as legitimate, and when they were faced with fake news story that were inconsistent with their ideology, they were even less likely to consider the news legitimate than everyone else. One possible explanation is that highly logical and rational people are not only more likely to disbelieve politically-inconsistent news stories along tribal lines, but they are also more likely to seek out further disconfirming information, thus exaggerating their disbelief of politically-inconsistent stories. This is consistent with research showing that people who score high in need for cognition tend to build information rich social networks, but of course this can be problematic when your rich social networks are still operating in an echo chamber. > However, liberals aren't off the hook, as they are statistically more likely to use investment in the righteousness of their political viewpoints to believe politically-consistent news stories, and their higher level of need for cognition to delegitimize politically-inconsistent news stories. The researchers found that liberals who scored higher in a measure of "collective narcissism"-- which measures a tendency to invest in, and perceive superiority of, your political views--showed exaggerated legitimacy judgments for the politically-consistent (e.g., anti-Trump) fake news stories.
  • bscphil 8y ago
    >One possible explanation is that highly logical and rational people are not only more likely to disbelieve politically-inconsistent news stories along tribal lines, but they are also more likely to seek out further disconfirming information, thus exaggerating their disbelief of politically-inconsistent stories. This is consistent with research showing that people who score high in need for cognition tend to build information rich social networks, but of course this can be problematic when your rich social networks are still operating in an echo chamber. I haven't said anything in conflict with this. My point is that there's a difference between susceptibility to believing fake news and the rate at which one actually believes fake news. Surely you wouldn't deny that "highly logical and rational people" are more likely to have correct political opinions than those who are the opposite? Rather, the point is that both liberals and conservatives develop a set of beliefs that allows them to make snap judgments. So they're equally susceptible to believing an individual piece of fake news that is targeted at them. But as a matter of fact, the things that liberals believe tend (but are not always) more true than those believed by conservatives. This is not an accident, but can rather be explained by the fact that the very beliefs that make up the biases that liberals hold are often informed by some knowledge of what the facts are.