The perils of overconfidence: Consuming, sharing, and believing false news content

• In Event: (Mis)information media production, consumption, and processing

Brief Overview

We use three surveys (N = 10,004) to compare perceptions of ability to discern fake news with measures of actual ability. Greater overconfidence is associated with fake news consumption, fake news sharing intent, and belief in topical misperceptions.

Authors

• Andrew Guess, Princeton University

• Benjamin A. Lyons, University of Exeter

• Jacob Michael Montgomery, Washington University in St Louis

• Brendan Nyhan, Dartmouth College

• Jason Reifler, University of Exeter