National Survey Finds Americans Have Difficulty Identifying False Political Claims

A recent national survey conducted by the COVID States Project, a collaborative research effort including Northwestern, Harvard, Northeastern, and Rutgers universities, revealed that only 8% of nearly 25,000 Americans surveyed were able to correctly identify all false political claims presented to them.

The study, titled “Health and Political Misperceptions in the U.S.,” was conducted between Dec. 22, 2022, and Jan. 17, 2023, and surveyed American adults across all 50 states. Respondents were asked to identify popular vaccine and political misinformation claims as true or false, with “not sure” included as a third option.

According to the survey, overall, 20% of Americans endorsed at least one misperception regarding COVID-19 vaccines, such as claims that vaccines may cause infertility, alter DNA, or contain microchip trackers. Another 45% did not endorse any vaccine misperceptions but were uncertain about the accuracy of some claims. 

The survey also found that those who believed false vaccine statements were more than twice as likely to believe inaccurate claims about politics when compared with those who could correctly identify false vaccine claims. 

In addition, the study found that belief in inaccurate political claims was most common among those who endorsed vaccine misperceptions. 71% of those who believed false vaccine claims also believed inaccurate political claims. In contrast, just 32% of those who correctly identified all false vaccine claims believed inaccurate political statements.

Political scientist James Druckman, one of the project’s principal investigators, suspects that the relative prevalence of political misperceptions versus vaccine-related misperceptions stems from politics being a more contested domain without consensus experts. Druckman is the Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern.

Learn more in Northwestern Now’s article, “Survey: Half of Americans uncertain about ability to identify false political claims.”