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Well, we all know what fake news is and that this has in recent years become a constant theme in society. And of course some of this fake news is easy to spot. I mean it is really easy to spot, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Well, no, according to some research out of the University of Utah and by Ben Lyons and colleagues.
They asked 8,285 individuals in a US representative study to evaluate the accuracy in a series of facebook headlines and rate their ability to discern false news content.
About 90 percent reported that they believe they are above average in their ability to discern fake from legitimate news. This may sound surprising but this follows a well known effect known as self-rater bias: the tendency to rate ourselves better than average at just about anything. Ask people if they are better than average drivers and they almost always respond yes, better in bed, of course, more creative than the average person, you bet!
But their analysis show to just what extent. Three-quarters of individuals rate themselves 22…
