Abstract
The mechanisms by which individuals evaluate the veracity of uncertain news and subsequently decide whether to seek additional information to resolve uncertainty remain unclear. In a controlled experiment participants assessed non-partisan ambiguous news and made decisions about whether to acquire extra information. Interestingly, confidence in their judgments of news veracity did not reliably predict actual accuracy, indicating limited metacognitive ability in navigating ambiguous news. Nonetheless, the level of confidence, although uncalibrated, was the primary driver of the demand for additional information about the news, with lower confidence driving a greater demand, regardless of its veracity judgment. This demand for disambiguating information, driven by the uncalibrated metacognition, was increasingly ineffective as individuals became more enticed by the ambiguity of the news. Our findings highlight how metacognitive abilities shape decisions to seek or avoid additional information amidst ambiguity, suggesting that interventions targeting ambiguity and enhancing confidence calibration could effectively combat misinformation. Main Text