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Exposure to untrustworthy websites in the 2016 US election

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew M. Guess

    (Princeton University)

  • Brendan Nyhan

    (Dartmouth College)

  • Jason Reifler

    (University of Exeter)

Abstract

Although commentators frequently warn about echo chambers, little is known about the volume or slant of political misinformation that people consume online, the effects of social media and fact checking on exposure, or the effects of political misinformation on behaviour. Here, we evaluate these questions for websites that publish factually dubious content, which is often described as fake news. Survey and web-traffic data from the 2016 US presidential campaign show that supporters of Donald Trump were most likely to visit these websites, which often spread through Facebook. However, these websites made up a small share of people’s information diets on average and were largely consumed by a subset of Americans with strong preferences for pro-attitudinal information. These results suggest that the widespread speculation about the prevalence of exposure to untrustworthy websites has been overstated.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew M. Guess & Brendan Nyhan & Jason Reifler, 2020. "Exposure to untrustworthy websites in the 2016 US election," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(5), pages 472-480, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:4:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1038_s41562-020-0833-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0833-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Bosch, Oriol J. & Sturgis, Patrick & Kuha, Jouni & Revilla, Melanie, 2023. "Uncovering digital trace data biases: tracking undercoverage in web tracking data," SocArXiv t2dbj, Center for Open Science.
    2. Meng Zhen Larsen & Michael R. Haupt & Tiana McMann & Raphael E. Cuomo & Tim K. Mackey, 2023. "The Influence of News Consumption Habits and Dispositional Traits on Trust in Medical Scientists," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Gordon Pennycook & David G. Rand, 2022. "Nudging Social Media toward Accuracy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 152-164, March.
    4. Fabio Padovano & Pauline Mille, 2023. "Education, fake news and the Political Budget Cycle," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2023-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    5. Sergei Guriev & Elias Papaioannou, 2022. "The Political Economy of Populism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 753-832, September.
    6. repec:cup:judgdm:v:16:y:2021:i:2:p:484-504 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Mohsen Mosleh & David G. Rand, 2022. "Measuring exposure to misinformation from political elites on Twitter," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Saumya Bhadani & Shun Yamaya & Alessandro Flammini & Filippo Menczer & Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia & Brendan Nyhan, 2022. "Political audience diversity and news reliability in algorithmic ranking," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(4), pages 495-505, April.
    9. Gregory Eady & Tom Paskhalis & Jan Zilinsky & Richard Bonneau & Jonathan Nagler & Joshua A. Tucker, 2023. "Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency foreign influence campaign on Twitter in the 2016 US election and its relationship to attitudes and voting behavior," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Daniel Muise & Nilam Ram & Thomas Robinson & Byron Reeves, 2023. "Identification, Impacts, and Opportunities of Three Common Measurement Considerations when using Digital Trace Data," Papers 2310.00197, arXiv.org.
    11. Alfredo Guzmán Rincón & Sandra Barragán Moreno & Belén Rodríguez-Canovas & Ruby Lorena Carrillo Barbosa & David Ricardo Africano Franco, 2023. "Social networks, disinformation and diplomacy: a dynamic model for a current problem," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Alexander J. Stewart & Antonio A. Arechar & David G. Rand & Joshua B. Plotkin, 2021. "The Game Theory of Fake News," Papers 2108.13687, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    13. Sergei Guriev & Elias Papaioannou, 2022. "The Political Economy of Populism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 753-832, September.
    14. Ruben L. Bach & Christoph Kern & Denis Bonnay & Luc Kalaora, 2022. "Understanding political news media consumption with digital trace data and natural language processing," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(S2), pages 246-269, December.
    15. Brian Hughes & Kesa White & Jennifer West & Meili Criezis & Cindy Zhou & Sarah Bartholomew, 2021. "Cultural Variance in Reception and Interpretation of Social Media COVID-19 Disinformation in French-Speaking Regions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-28, November.
    16. Ryan C. Moore & Ross Dahlke & Jeffrey T. Hancock, 2023. "Exposure to untrustworthy websites in the 2020 US election," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(7), pages 1096-1105, July.
    17. Jana Lasser & Segun T. Aroyehun & Fabio Carrella & Almog Simchon & David Garcia & Stephan Lewandowsky, 2023. "From alternative conceptions of honesty to alternative facts in communications by US politicians," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(12), pages 2140-2151, December.
    18. João Pedro Baptista & Anabela Gradim, 2020. "Understanding Fake News Consumption: A Review," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-22, October.
    19. Gordon Pennycook & David G. Rand, 2022. "Accuracy prompts are a replicable and generalizable approach for reducing the spread of misinformation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Nyabuti Damaris Kemunto & Prof. Hezron Mogambi & Dr. Anita Kiamba, 2023. "Foreign Policy Disinformation: Fueling Polarization and Deterioration of the Public Sphere in Kenya," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(8), pages 425-442, August.
    21. Christopher Adamo & Jeffrey Carpenter, 2023. "Sentiment and the belief in fake news during the 2020 presidential primaries," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 2, pages 512-547.
    22. Robert M. Ross & David G. Rand & Gordon Pennycook, 2021. "Beyond “fake news†: Analytic thinking and the detection of false and hyperpartisan news headlines," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(2), pages 484-504, March.
    23. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Stephan Lewandowsky & Cass R. Sunstein & Ralph Hertwig, 2020. "How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1102-1109, November.
    24. Steve Rathje & Jon Roozenbeek & Jay J. Bavel & Sander Linden, 2023. "Accuracy and social motivations shape judgements of (mis)information," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(6), pages 892-903, June.

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