‘Elders, conservatives more likely to share fake news’

Facebook users aged 65 or older and conservatives are more likely to share fake news on the platform than younger or more liberal counterparts, according to a new study published on Wednesday.

Researchers from Princeton University and New York University analysed Facebook posts of nearly 1,200 people who agreed to share their data in the aftermath of the 2016 United States presidential election.

Researchers compared links the respondents shared on Facebook with lists of websites known to share false information.

The study, published in Science Advances, found less than 8.5 per cent of respondents shared a link from one of these websites.

However, those that did tended to be older and self-identified as being on the conservative end of the political spectrum.

In fact, users over age 65, regardless of political affiliations, shared “nearly seven times as many articles from fake news domains” as 18 to 29-year-olds, the youngest age group studied.

“No other demographic characteristic seems to have a consistent effect on sharing fake news,” the authors reported.

“It is possible that an entire cohort of Americans, now in their 60s and beyond, lacks the level of digital media literacy necessary to reliably determine the trustworthiness of news encountered online,” they suggested.

Although the study found that Republicans shared more fake news than Democrats, and ideologically, conservatives shared the most fake news stories, this could be due to the fact that most fake news produced during the 2016 presidential campaign favoured President Donald Trump.