Conservatives exhibit greater metacognitive inefficiency, study finds
A new study published in the
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General reveals an asymmetry in how people across the political spectrum perceive their ability to detect misinformation. While both liberals and conservatives show some awareness of their ability to judge the accuracy of political information, conservatives exhibit a notable weakness when faced with information that contradicts their political beliefs.
In other words, when confronted with news that goes against their political views, conservatives’ confidence in their judgments does not align well with their actual accuracy. This mismatch, or “metacognitive inefficiency,” suggests that conservatives are less aware of when they are wrong when the information contradicts their ideological commitments.
While much research has been done on people’s ability to distinguish between true and false political information, less attention has been paid to how aware people are of their own accuracy—or lack thereof—in making these judgments. This study sought to fill that gap by investigating whether people’s confidence in their truth judgments is justified, particularly in politically charged contexts.