Believing false claims often reflects credible-source trust, not deliberate distortion

Evidence

Rather than some deliberate motivation to willingly distort evidence, it could be that people are misinformed due to selective exposure. Especially in hyper-partisan and polarized media landscapes such as in the United States, you’re more likely to be exposed to only one or a few sources of information about a topic (think CNN or Fox News). How are you to know any different? It may very well be that people believe that their attitudes are based on accurate information. Think back to the inauguration photos: perhaps Trump supporters believed the larger turnout image belonged to Trump’s inauguration because that’s what they’d been told was true from a source they deemed credible. At the same time, many like-minded friends and family may have also endorsed the same belief. Knowledge is community-based. In other words, you may endorse a false claim because you deem the source to be credible. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 128

Categorization

• XREF: Knowledge is community-based connects to the reader’s Milgrom material on reputation systems and how information gaps get filled institutionally — misinformation as an information-cost problem. — connects to: False beliefs often stem from bad sources rather than closed minds — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 143; Drama-driven media coverage of bogus claims breeds lasting public harm — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 167; Most of what people believe is taken on trust, not direct observation — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 280

Broader Connections

• False beliefs often stem from bad sources rather than closed minds #corroborates (0.92) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 143