Exposure to Misinformation Does Not Increase Truth Relativism

Though much research on fake news and misinformation has focused on individual differences in the ability to detect and transmit fake news (e.g., reasoning strategies, identity, emotions, political affiliation), less well understood is how fake news influences people’s attitudes towards true news. The present study investigates whether exposure to misinformation increases truth relativism—the view that the news is neither completely true nor completely false. To evaluate this, we develop a measure of truth relativism based on the relative truth or falsity of news headlines. In four experiments exposing people to different levels of fake news, we found that truth relativism is not affected by differential exposure to fake news (Bayesian meta-analysis BF01=133.13). However, people’s truth relative views of headlines was consistent with their own self-reported truth relativism using a self-report survey. Our results indicate that truth relativism is a trait, not a state, and that this state is impervious to misinformation.