Illusory Superiority About Misinformation Detection and Its Relationship to Knowledge and Fact-Checking Intentions: Evidence from 18 Countries

• Published in: Mass communication & society pp. 1 - 20
• Main Authors: Corbu, Nicoleta, Halagiera, Denis, Jin, Soyeon, Stanyer, James, Strömbäck, Jesper, Matthes, Jörg, Hopmann, David Nicolas, Schemer, Christian, Koc-Michalska, Karolina, Aalberg, Toril
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2025
• Subjects: cognitive biases; comparative research; fact-checking; illusory superiority; Media and Communications; Medie-, kommunikations-, och informationsvetenskaper; misinformation
• ISSN: 1520-5436; 1532-7825
• DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2025.2495206

Cognitive biases are known to influence how people react to misinformation, and the way they use various strategies to navigate the current media ecosystem. While confirmation bias and the third person effect have been subject to many studies about the effects of misinformation, little is known about the impact of illusory superiority, a self-enhancement (or self-related) bias, on misinformation detection. To address this, the current study investigates illusory superiority bias about misinformation detection in 18 democracies drawing on survey data (N = 26,000). Among other things, the results show (1) that people overestimate their capacity to detect misinformation in comparison to others in all countries included in this study; (2) that the more knowledgeable people are, the stronger this particular cognitive bias about misinformation detection is; and, (3) that illusory superiority is positively correlated with (self-declared) fact-checking behaviors.