Higher digital and political literacy actually makes people more likely to believe fake news, not less.
April 1, 2026
Original Paper
<p>Integrated Analysis of Literacy to Judge the Veracity of Information and Understand Dissemination Behavior</p>
SSRN · 6391361
The Takeaway
In a study of over 15,000 people, those with high digital and political literacy scores tended to believe information regardless of its truth status. Rather than acting as a filter for falsehoods, these literacies seem to increase overall 'believability' and trust in all circulated information items.
From the abstract
Purpose: This study examines how different forms of literacy and psychological factors are associated with individuals' veracity judgments and sharing behavior concerning both political misinformation and true information in Japan. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a large-scale online survey using a national panel (main survey n = 15,261), presenting 10 widely circulated political misinformation items and 10 true news items. We measured media, digital, fact-opinion, fact-checking, and p