Element contents
Series: Elements in American Politics
False Alarm
The Truth About Political Mistruths in the Trump Era
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2019
Summary
Americans are not invulnerable to factual information. They do not 'backfire'; facts do not make them less accurate. Instead, they become more accurate, even when corrections target co-partisans. Corrections of fake news yield similar results. Among Republicans, Trump's misstatements are less susceptible to corrections than identical misstatements attributed to other Republicans. While we do not observe facts affecting attitudes, multiple instances of misinformation can increase approval of the responsible politician - but corrections can reduce approval by similar amounts. While corrections do not eliminate false beliefs, they reduce the share of inaccurate beliefs among subjects in this study nearly in half.
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- Series: Elements in American PoliticsOnline ISBN: 9781108688338Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 03 October 2019
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