Very few Americans shared “fake news” on Facebook during the 2016 presidential election campaign, but those who did were disproportionately likely to be over 65, a new study has found.
The findings: The study in Science Advances is one of the first attempts by academics to work out who shares fake news online. In all, a mere 8.5% of Americans shared links to fake news sites on Facebook. The study found that 11% of those over 65 shared fake news, compared with only 3% of those aged 18 to 29.
How it was conducted: A survey of 3,500 people was conducted by pollster YouGov from April to November 2016, including a sample of 1,300 respondents who shared access to their Facebook time lines.
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