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Politically Knowledgeable or Directional (Mis)Believers? How to Identify Those Who Are correct About Political Facts for the “Wrong” Reasons
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Number of Authors: 62025 (English)In: Communication Research, ISSN 0093-6502, E-ISSN 1552-3810Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

An informed public is essential to democratic representation, and the news media have traditionally played a central role in supporting this ideal. However, the changing media environment and a rise of misinformation have raised new questions about how citizens acquire and retain political knowledge, prompting distinctions between the uninformed and those holding directional or evidence-resistant misbeliefs. We extend this discussion by arguing that even individuals who are factually accurate may not necessarily be politically knowledgeable, as directional beliefs can sometimes coincide with correct information. We address this both theoretically—by integrating concepts of certainty and attitudes toward evidence—and empirically, by analyzing belief patterns across political issues using Swedish survey data (N = 2,268). Our findings suggest that individuals can be knowledgeable on some issues yet holding directional (mis)beliefs on others, selectively aligning with facts that support their views. These belief patterns are not associated with traditional news use but correlate with alternative news consumption.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
Keywords [en]
political beliefs, political knowledge, motivated reasoning, media effects, latent profile analysis, Sweden
National Category
Media and Communication Studies Political Science (Excluding Peace and Conflict Studies)
Research subject
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-250932DOI: 10.1177/00936502251392780ISI: 001624023900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105023138477OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-250932DiVA, id: diva2:2026306
Funder
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, M18-0310:1Available from: 2026-01-08 Created: 2026-01-08 Last updated: 2026-01-16

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Lindholm, Torun

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Personality, Social and Developmental Psychology
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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf