Are you mistaking opinion news as fact?

Today, with an abundance of sources available to consume our daily news it becomes increasingly important to recognize what is factual and what is an opinion. Can you tell the difference? You might be thinking does it really matter?

If you are an independent thinker who rejects the notion that because something is repeated a million times, it must be true, and if you refuse to become a victim of groupthink, it does matter!

Especially now, when we are so divided as a society, and when we are so susceptible to falling prey to misperception, misinformation, deception, and hidden agendas everywhere we turn. So how good are we at being able to differentiate factual statements from opinion statements in the news?

A Recent Study

An interesting study by Pew Research Center released in June 2018, “..explore(d) whether the public sees distinctions between news based upon objective evidence and news that is not.” In the study, 5,035 U.S. adults were given 12 news statements (politically/government oriented) that respondents were asked to categorize as follows:’’

1. ‘A factual statement, regardless of whether it is accurate or inaccurate. In other words, choose this classification if you think that the statement can be proved or disproved based on objective evidence.’
2. ‘An opinion statement, regardless of whether you agree with the statement or not. In other words, choose this classification if you think that it is based on the values and beliefs of the journalist or the source making the statement, and could not definitively be proved or disproved based on objective evidence.’

(Remember the goal of the study was to determine whether the respondents considered news statements as factual statements or simply opinions – not whether they are true or false, correct or incorrect).

How well can you tell factual from opinion statements?
Take the Quiz from Pew Research here:
http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/news-statements-quiz/

Some Study Results

• 26% of the U.S. Adults surveyed correctly identified all the factual statements.
• 35% of the U.S. Adults surveyed correctly identified all the opinion statements.
• 72% of the U.S. Adults surveyed got more factual statements correct than incorrect.
• 78% of the U.S. Adults surveyed got more opinion statements correct than incorrect.
• 28% of the U.S. Adults surveyed got most, or all the factual statements wrong.
• 22% of the U.S. Adults surveyed got most, or all the opinion statements wrong.

Note: statements that were unanswered were considered incorrect.

At a glance, these results seem to show that:

• Approximately 25% of all those surveyed were able to accurately identify a news statement as either factual or opinion.
• Of the 75% remaining, about half were able to get more statements correct than incorrect (but as the report indicates, some of these may be attributable to random guessing).
• And, about one-quarter (of the remaining 75%) got all or most statements wrong.

This suggests (to me at least) that a large portion of our population may be vulnerable to misinterpreting political opinion news statements as factual statements and vice versa.

Political Views as a Factor in Distinguishing Facts from Opinions

As detailed in the report, political party association and party views seem to contribute to some degree to the inability to distinguish facts from opinions in the news. Both “Republicans and Democrats are more likely to think news statements are factual when they appeal to their side – even if they are opinions.”

For example, 43% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats correctly identified this factual statement as a fact: “Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally have some rights under the Constitution.” And in another example, 12% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats incorrectly labeled this opinion statement as a fact: “Abortion should be legal in most cases.”

However, it must be noted that Independents were not included in this study, which is unfortunate, because it would be interesting and perhaps enlightening to see the results of those with no party affiliation.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias can also be a factor in the inability to separate factual news statements from opinion news statements. “Confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea/concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views (prejudices) one would like to be true (psychologytoday.com).”

In terms of news reporting, confirmation bias would occur when a news reporter who is researching an important issue only interviews experts or sources that support his or her personal views on the subject. Does this happen? You bet it does! And as a news consumer, it is often difficult if not impossible to decide this without a serious amount of research, especially when it comes to politics.

“Fake News”

Facebook and other social media are full of opinion, bias and stereotypes masquerading as fact, and just outright “fake news,” especially when it comes to politics. A good nonpartisan source that I use for helping to separate political facts from opinion or to weed out fake news is www.factcheck.org. They have articles, information, and resources to help you spot political fake news and a format for asking questions.

“FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.”

It is always important  to separate facts from opinions. The inability to do so can affect your beliefs and influence your values. But especially now, in the current atmosphere of divisiveness and major political differences, it is more important than ever that we can separate facts from opinions, and weed out misinformation, deception, and hidden agendas. Is it a fact, or is it what someone either mistakenly believes themselves or wants you to believe to further their own agenda?

The methodology used in the Pew Report is found here: http://www.journalism.org/2018/06/18/factual-opinion-methodology/

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