Fair truth

Is the truth dead? Maybe not, at least according to recent scientific research. Although the truth is not completely extinct, a worrying gap still emerges in access to accurate information, highlighting how social inequality can also transform into information inequality.

The media plays a fundamental role in modern democracies, serving as a tool through which citizens can exercise control over government. For example, through accurate political information, voters would be able to make the government "accountable" for the promises made to voters and the policies adopted. In recent years, however, the increased awareness of the importance of the media has been accompanied by widespread concerns about the quality of information received by voters, in particular about the spread of fake political news. The potential effect of fake news is not limited to the spread of false information, but is also to limit the spread of truthful news.

Scientific research published in the American Economic Review examines the phenomenon of "post-truth", according to which the emotional perception of a topic or situation can prevail over objective reality or verifiable facts. To this end, in the context of political information in the United States, the authors collect empirical evidence about the impact of fake news on the level of voter information.

The work is divided into three phases. The first consists of identifying the "journalistic truth", for which a protocol was developed based on the selection of relevant stories by journalists. Subsequently, monthly surveys are carried out on representative samples of US voters, subjecting them to quizzes aimed at measuring their perception of the truthfulness of the political news selected by journalists. The data is then used to estimate a "discernment" model of the reliability of the news.

At an aggregate level, the authors estimate that 82% of individuals correctly identify a true story. Faced with one true and one false news, 47% of subjects confidently choose the true story, the 3% the story is false, and the remaining 50% is uncertain.

At a disaggregated level, socioeconomic inequalities emerge as the main factor in determining voters' ability to identify top stories. Age, education, gender, income and ethnicity significantly influence the likelihood of selecting a true story. Socioeconomic inequalities appear to be the predominant reason why a significant proportion of the American public is informationally distant from mainstream journalism.

The findings suggest that the “death of truth” is far from a universal phenomenon. Contrary to expectations, a majority of Americans have a solid understanding of real news and appear to be able to distinguish between it with confidence from fake news. Political ideology certainly plays a role, but socioeconomic inequality represents the main explanatory factor of the different capacity for discernment. It therefore emerges as a predictive factor of information inequality.

These findings raise crucial questions about where these information inequalities come from, suggesting the need for reforms aimed at mitigating this gap along socioeconomic lines.

In conclusion, the research calls for further investigations to fully understand the causes of these inequalities and evaluate the effectiveness of policies aimed at promoting equal access to information sources, trying to preserve the fundamental role of truth in contemporary society.


Pierluigi Conzo
NP February 2024