Erwachsene im Alter von 55 Jahren und älter teilen deutlich häufiger politische Fehlinformationen als jüngere Social-Media-Nutzer. Ältere Menschen halten ihre Meinung eher für wahr und geben Informationen weiter, die mit ihrer Partei übereinstimmen, unabhängig davon, ob sie wahr sind oder nicht. Die über 55-Jährigen sind weitaus parteiischer.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001868

From the linked article:

**Adults aged 55 and older are significantly more likely to share political misinformation than younger social media users**. And it’s not because they’re unable to discern fake news from real news, according to new CU Boulder research.

The study of nearly 2,500 adults across the United States and Brazil found that the older people get, the more partisan they become—and that partisanship can muddy their judgment.

“We found that **older people are more likely to believe as true and to share information that aligns with their party, whether that information is true or not**,” said senior author Leaf Van Boven, professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder.

Numerous previous studies have shown that older adults spread more misinformation. One found that during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook users over the age of 65 shared almost seven times more fake news than adults under age 30. On Twitter, 80% of fake news was shared by users over age 50.

The research found no evidence that older adults are less able to think analytically and distinguish fake from real news.

It did find that **the 55-and-older set was far more partisan** and that partisanship shaped how critically they assessed headline accuracy.

I’m 60 and this makes sense. I do research before I post anything but so many of my colleagues do not.

Things spiraled very quickly after the olds infiltrated and took over Facebook.

But younger people use social media more, so I woukd think numbers wise, misinformation may come from a young person more often or more likely from a young person because thier using it more often.

Except, when we are not. Granted, lots of folks falling for it, believing the lies, and living out their little racist fantasies, but the worst thing people of any age can do is decide what other folks are like on a generational basis. We are all individuals, at any age.