The consequences of misinformation concern on media consumption

Abstract

For the last decade, policymakers, journalists, and scientists have continued to alert us of the threat of misinformation for making sound decisions in the political, health, and environmental domains. In this study, we evaluate whether perceiving misinformation as a threat affects media use, particularly considering selection of media sources that are politically aligned. We show which groups are more likely to be concerned about misinformation and find experimental and correlational evidence of an impact of concern on greater use of politically aligned sources among Democrats. We also found no evidence that perceiving higher ability to detect misinformation decreases this association.