This study investigates the association between demographics (political partisanship, age) and the ability to discern true and false news, metacognitive efficiency, and response bias. Democrats and older adults demonstrated superior accuracy in distinguishing true from false news headlines compared to Republicans and younger adults. However, all demographic groups exhibited good insight into their discernment abilities. While Republicans were less accurate, they showed slightly better metacognitive efficiency using a politically equated item set. This suggests that even when misjudging misinformation, individuals are often aware of potential inaccuracies.

Mitch Dobbs, Joseph DeGutis, Jorge Morales, Kenneth Joseph, Briony Swire-Thompson