Politicians are cashing in on public gullibility, the tendency of people to think something is true based on gut feeling. It is fiendishly difficult to combat the lies even when confronting them immediately with the facts. During the 2024 presidential cycle, the news media would improve their coverage by not treating the election as a “horse race” and stick to the issues. (Poynter, June 27, 2023, by Ron Laforme)
Research of Americans showed that younger adults were less adept than than their elders in identifying false headlines. The more time spent online the less like people were able to tell real news from lies. Researchers want the public to test themselves: https://yourmist.streamlit.app/. (Phys.org, June 29, 2023, by University of Cambridge)