Gen Z, Ultra-Rightists Lap Up Falsehoods

What do English-speaking ultra conservatives and Generation Z have in common? They are the most susceptible to misinformation. Ultra-rightists, however, believe the exact opposite about their abilities to discern truth from falsehoods. Harsh? Not really, but definitely noteworthy. And of course, backed by research. 

A new study, conducted on more than 65,000 individuals across a few continents has thrown up these interesting findings and more. So, whether you are brainwashed ideologically or digitally, the effects can be similar. But, more about the study first, and some of its findings.

The findings  

A group of six prominent researchers in Psychology from the Universities of Cambridge Oxford and British Columbia have published the study (Profiling Misinformation Susceptibility), earlier this month, in the journal, Personality and Individual Differences, published by Elsevier and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID). 

The authors used the Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST), developed last year by researchers at the University of Cambridge.  The creators of the test, describe it as a specifically designed “psychometrically validated measure of an individual’s ability to distinguish fake news from real news, that combines ecologically-valid AI-generated fake news headlines with carefully sourced real news headlines from highly accurate and politically unbiased media outlets”. Subjects for the study took the MIST-20 test that exposed them to 10 items each of real and false news. 66,242 individuals from 24 countries were eventually included in the study that indicated their self-perceived misinformation discernment ability.  

The groups found most vulnerable to misinformation, were: non-males, those less educated, those with very conservative views and Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012). People who went to university (even if they didn’t finish), got a bachelor’s degree, or had even higher degrees performed better at the quiz than those who only finished high school or had less education. Yet, those with university degrees “were worse at correctly estimating their ability than those with high school or lower educational attainment”, the study noted.

The research also delved into how well people judge their own ability to spot falsehoods. Generally, if people thought they were good at spotting misinformation, they actually were. Women were especially good at knowing how well they could actually tell what was fake. For the ultra-conservatives, what they perceived was their ability to spot misinformation didn’t really match how well they actually did on the test. Gen Z did the worst on the test overall, but they were the most accurate in judging their own ability.

You can also take the test here: https://yourmist.streamlit.app/

Useful in designing interventions

Authors of the study once again underline the previously debunked myth that digital natives are able to navigate online misinformation better because of greater digital exposure. They link this to the poor quality of information available online. “Heightened exposure to digital environments, as is common for Gen Z, may not automatically result in higher digital literacy, likely due to the lower quality of news on social media,” they observed. 

While they give no reasons for ultra-rightists being easily misinformed, it perhaps links back to the role of confirmation bias, resulting in poor judgment and even poorer judgment of one’s own misinformation discernment abilities. Misinformation by definition is false information shared by someone who believes it to be true. When your belief system aligns with the disinformation you receive, you want to convince others too – kicking off a vicious cycle of misinformation.

The study with its large sample size can be particularly significant in informing interventions against spread of misinformation among personality types and demographies. 

Fact-checking Is For All

Tags

• Confirmation Bias
• Disinformation
• Generation Z
• MIST – Misinformation Susceptibility Test
• Ultra conservatives