News Source Quality

News source quality refers to the reliability, factual accuracy, and trustworthiness of news outlets and online sources. Professional fact-checkers rate sources on a spectrum from entirely fabricated ("fake news") to hyperpartisan but factual to mainstream reputable outlets.

Key finding

Individual differences in cognitive reflection predict which news sources users choose to share on social media. Higher-CRT (more analytically minded) users preferentially share links from fact-checker-trusted outlets and avoid low-trust sources. This extends prior laboratory findings about truth discernment into actual social media sharing behavior.

Key papers

• Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter — CRT predicts sharing of higher-quality news sources; high-CRT users more likely to share BBC, less likely to share Daily Mail