False Alarm

Multiple studies conducted during the Trump era reveal that Americans are far less resistant to factual information than is commonly surmised.

Does Trump's election mean Americans reflexively resist factual information? Evidence strongly suggests not. Americans across the political spectrum are responsive to factual information, even when facts undercut claims made by their party's politicians. However, being more factually accurate does not generally change people's political beliefs.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.