Most Americans think they won’t be misled by election disinformation — but they worry about others falling victim
More than half of all Americans (58%) say they are somewhat or very concerned that people in their community could be deceived by election disinformation. But at the same time, few think they will fall victim themselves: only 27% say they might fall victim to false or misleading information, while 25% say misleading information might sway their decisions at the polls.
This pattern holds across party lines. Most Democrats, Republicans and Independents feel confident they won’t be misled by election disinformation. Democrats are most likely to worry that their peers will be confused by disinformation; 72% of Democrats are very or somewhat concerned versus 49% of Republicans and 55% of Independents. Republicans (41%) and Independents (39%) are more likely to be concerned that they will miss important news due to censorship than Democrats (26%), though the portion of the population concerned about censorship still represents less than half of Americans.
Most Americans (76%) think false information about elections is a problem on social media platforms. Despite this high level of agreement among the public, there are still slight partisan differences in how seriously people view the issue. Most Democrats (88%) feel false election information on social media is a very or somewhat serious problem compared to 71% of Republicans and 70% of Independents. [Continue reading…]