Psychologists at the University of Cambridge have developed the first validated “misinformation sensitivity test”: a quick two-minute test that assesses a person’s ability to tell real news from fake news.
According to the survey, young people aged 18 to 29 (11%) are worse than adults aged 65 and over (36%) at detecting false headlines, and the more time a user spends online for entertainment, the more susceptible they are to misinformation.
About 30% of those who spend up to 2 hours on the Internet every day for the purpose of entertainment scored high compared to 15% of those who spend 9 or more hours on the Internet.
On social media, the audience is most susceptible to misinformation. About 53% of those who received news from Snapchat received low ratings, and only 4% received high ratings. Truth Social came in second, followed by WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram.
