Growing number of Americans are concerned with election misinformation, survey reveals

Misinformation is a growing concern amongst Americans, fueling widespread distrust and uncertainty about how it could impact major state and local elections on November 4.

According to SmartNews’ new state of misinformation survey, which is being released on October 22, 82% of adults are concerned about attempts to mislead voters during this off-year election cycle, and 67% say they are encountering even more misinformation than they did during last year’s presidential election.

Jason Alderman, the managing director at SmartNews reveals key findings from the survey as well as practical tips on how your audience can tell fact from fiction and avoid falling victim to misinformation.

“That level of anxiety, I mean, the increased amount of misinformation that people are seeing out there. So, it’s only been a year since we’ve had a historic presidential election where people were flooded with misinformation, and yet our survey respondents told us 67% of them are seeing even more misinformation around this election than they did last year,” said Alderman.

SmartNews’ survey reveals surprising areas where democrats, republicans, and independents agree on the risks of misinformation, as well as the emergence of a significant generational divide regarding the role of AI and social media in spreading false information.

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