OSU Study: Fake News Swayed Enough Obama Voters to Elect Trump

You may have seen this.  I hope so.

An Ohio State Universtity research study focusing on 2012 Obama voters who voted for Trump in 2016 is an eye-opener.  Begin with the fact that about 77% of Obama voters also voted for Hillary Clinton, but 23% did not.  If just a few more of those folks had stuck with her, Hillary would be president.  Why did they switch sides?

I think it first must be said that any Obama voter who switched to Trump is by definition uninformed, indecisive and unprincipled -- a classic "independent" flip-flopper.  But the researchers made no such assumption of stupidity.

Instead, the study asked the 1600 party-switching respondents for their take on hundreds of questions, including three blatantly, outrageously false statements widely circulated on social media and on some disreputable media outlets.

Researchers found that the more likely these voters were to believe obvious "fake news" bullshit, the less likely they were to vote for Clinton.


The three false, fake news statements:
1.  "Hillary Clinton is in very poor health due to a serious illness."
2.  "Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump for president prior to the election."
3.  "As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton approved weapons sales to Islamic jihadists, including ISIS."

Number of            Percent who
false statements    who voted for
believed                 Clinton 
     0                           89%
     1                           61%
    2-3                         17%

The OSU study concludes:  "These data strongly suggest that exposure to fake news did have a significant impact on voting decisions."

 

Myself, I blame stupid people.