Illusory superiority about misinformation detection and its relationship to knowledge and fact-checking intentions: Evidence from 18 countries
- Author(s)
- Nicoleta Corbu, Denis Halagiera, Soyeon Jin, James Stanyer, Jesper Strömbäck, Jörg Matthes, David Nicolas Hopmann, Christian Schemer, Karolina Koc-Michalska, Toril Aalberg
- Abstract
Cognitive biases are known to influence how people react to misinformation, and the way they use various strategies to navigate the current media ecosystem. While confirmation bias and the third person effect have been subject to many studies about the effects of misinformation, little is known about the impact of illusory superiority, a self-enhancement (or self-related) bias, on misinformation detection. To address this, the current study investigates illusory superiority bias about misinformation detection in 18 democracies drawing on survey data (N = 26,000). Among other things, the results show (1) that people overestimate their capacity to detect misinformation in comparison to others in all countries included in this study; (2) that the more knowledgeable people are, the stronger this particular cognitive bias about misinformation detection is; and, (3) that illusory superiority is positively correlated with (self-declared) fact-checking behaviors.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Technische Universität München, Loughborough University, University of Gothenburg, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Audencia Business School, University of Silesia in Katowice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Journal
- Mass Communication and Society
- No. of pages
- 20
- ISSN
- 1520-5436
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2025.2495206
- Publication date
- 01-2025
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7f91a33c-f956-4191-97f3-a20572a3f577