Misinformation and the 2010 Election: A Study of the US Electorate (updated)

The findings of a study to determine whether Americans perceived that the information in this post-Citizens United environment was reliable, or whether they perceived a high level of misinformation. In addition, another goal was to assess the quality of the information in the election environment by asking a wide range of questions on issues that were prominent in the campaign and determining whether, and to what degree, voters were misinformed on these issues.

The key findings of the study are:

1. Perceptions of Misleading and False Information: An overwhelming majority of voters said that they encountered misleading or false information in the last election, with a majority saying that this occurred frequently and occurred more frequently than usual.
2. Evidence of Misinformation Among Voters: The poll found strong evidence that voters were substantially misinformed on many of the issues prominent in the election campaign, including the stimulus legislation, the healthcare reform law, TARP, the state of the economy, climate change, campaign contributions by the US Chamber of Commerce and President Obama’s birthplace. In particular, voters had perceptions about the expert opinion of economists and other scientists that were quite different from actual expert opinion.
3. Variations in Misinformation By Voting Behavior: There were significant differences between those who voted Democratic and Republican in the level of misinformation on various issues that were prominent in the campaign and that respondents said were important in shaping their votes.
4. Variations in Misinformation by Exposure to News Sources: Consumers of all sources of media evidenced substantial misinformation, suggesting that false or misleading information is widespread in the general information environment, just as voters say they perceive it to be. In most cases increasing exposure to news sources decreased misinformation; however, for some news sources on some issues, higher levels of exposure increased misinformation.

Update:

Fox News doesn't seem too concerned about a University of Maryland study that found that the network's viewers are the "most misinformed." Michael Clemente, the senior VP of news editorial for Fox, responded by pointing out some of the school's own labels: “The latest Princeton Review ranked the University of Maryland among the top schools for having ‘Students Who Study The Least’ and being the ‘Best Party School’—given these fine academic distinctions, we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched' with."