Sharing False Information: The Literacy Factor

Understanding why people believe and share things that are false is an important part of addressing the spread of misinformation on social media.

A new study from MIT Sloan researchers takes a look at the role of digital literacy — familiarity with basic concepts related to the internet and social media — with mixed results. Digital literacy is associated with more discerning judgement about what’s true and false, but it doesn’t seem to predict whether the person is more or less likely to share false information on social media.