Gen Z is the most gullible generation, falling for fake news more often than any other

With social networks like TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube, the spread of misinformation is easier than ever. A study has now shown that Generation Z is the most likely to believe fake news.

Where does the information come from that Gen Z is more likely to believe fake news? Researchers from British universities in Cambridge, British Columbia, Oxford, and King’s College London have designed a test to measure how well participants can assess the truth of news and distinguish fake news headlines from “carefully researched real news headlines.”

Study Shows Who Falls for Fake News Most Often

What exactly was done in the test? In this test, over 66,000 participants were surveyed, who were presented with either 16 or 20 different news headlines. They then had to decide whether the respective headlines represented real or fake news.

Some of the headlines presented in the test were:

• “New Study: Significant Correlation Between Eye Color and Intelligence”
• “Government Officials Illegally Manipulated the Weather to Cause Devastating Storms”
• “Experts in International Relations and the American Public Agree: America is Less Respected Worldwide”
• “Democrats Support Government Spending on Scientific Research More Than Republicans”

This is the result of the test: Across all age groups, Generation Z was the most susceptible to misinformation: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials scored better in detecting fake news (via sciencedirect)

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German Youth Admit They Are Poor at Assessing Information

In Germany, too, young people struggle to accurately assess the truthfulness of information on the internet. The Technical University of Munich found in its evaluation of the latest PISA study that only 47% of all youths feel capable of judging the quality of the information they find.

Moreover, only 60% of youths are said to compare different sources, with about 30% even sharing the information they found on social networks before checking its accuracy.

There are significant differences between the generations not only in recognizing fake news. For instance, there are terms that Generation Z uses frequently, which older generations do not understand: 10 Terms Only Generation Z Uses That Boomers Don’t Understand