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Pew Research CenterJune 14, 2018
Distinguishing Between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News

Americans overwhelmingly see accuracy in statements they both correctly and incorrectly deem as factual

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Americans overwhelmingly see accuracy in statements they both correctly and incorrectly deem as factual

Post Infographics

Distinguishing Between Factual and Opinion Statements in the News
Political awareness, digital savviness and trust in the media all play large roles in the ability to distinguish between factual and opinion news statements
Republicans and Democrats more likely to see factual and opinion news statements as factual when they favor their side
Republicans modestly more likely to correctly identify factual statements when attributed to Fox News
Few classified all factual and opinion statements correctly, though a majority got more correct than incorrect
Some news statements are more likely than others to be correctly identified as factual or opinion
Statements not clearly factual or opinion seen more as opinion
Political awareness
Digital savviness
Trust in news media
News interest
Those with high political awareness more likely to correctly identify factual and opinion news statements
Digitally savvy Americans much more likely to correctly identify factual and opinion statements
Those with a lot of trust in national news organizations more likely to correctly identify factual and opinion news statements
Republicans and Democrats more likely to correctly identify factual news statements when they favor their side
Republicans and Democrats more likely to incorrectly classify opinions as factual when they favor their side
A follow-up classification of factual and opinion statements
Americans overwhelmingly see accuracy in statements they both correctly and incorrectly deem as factual
Americans often disagree with factual statements they incorrectly label as opinions
Democrats’ and Republicans’ ability to correctly identify factual statements modestly influenced when attributed to Fox News
Margins of error
How Americans were asked to classify factual and opinion news statements
Example of news outlet attributions for second set of statements
Analyzing the impact of news outlets on classifying factual and opinion news statements
Americans with high news interest somewhat more likely to correctly identify factual statements, but no more likely to do so for opinions
How the study asked Americans to classify factual versus opinion-based news statements

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

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