A research study by Columbia Business School Professor Andrea Prat finds that socioeconomic factors, not political beliefs, had a greater influence on how well voters can discern between real and fake political news.
The study — "Is Journalistic Truth Dead? Measuring How Informed Voters Are about Political News" — was published in the Fall by Prat, a member of the Center for Political Economy's Advisory Board.
The study was featured in a story posted Oct. 3, 2024, on the Columbia Business School's website, Misinformation Is Thriving—And It's Not Just Politics to Blame.
The story notes that the finding "challenges the parallel universe theory, which argues that partisan media separates voters into different realities. Instead, the research shows that addressing misinformation requires tackling broader issues like education, income, and access to reliable information."
