Smart People May Be More Likely to Fall for Fake News (or Not)

One might suspect scientists of belaboring the obvious with the recent study called “Belief in Fake News Is Associated With Delusionality, Dogmatism, Religious Fundamentalism and Reduced Analytical Thinking.” The conclusion that some people are more gullible than others is the understanding in popular culture — but in the scientific world it’s pitted against another widely-believed paradigm, shaped by several counterintuitive studies that indicate we’re all equally biased, irrational and likely to fall for propaganda, sales pitches and general nonsense.

Experts have told us that consistent irrationality is a universal human trait. A columnist in the Washington Post last week reminded us of Jonathan Haidt’s “cogent and persuasive account" of how bad humans are at evidence-based reasoning. The article also cites the classic “Thinking, Fast and Slow” to argue that we’re ruled more by tribes, affiliations and instincts than by evidence. But isn’t it possible this applies to some people more than others? Is it reasonable to believe that we are all equally bad at reasoning? Luckily some scientists seem to think that they are capable of evidence-based reasoning, and they have investigated the questions.