Fig. 2: How Google search results impact belief in misinformation (study 5).

a, The proportion of individuals who, when searching online about a false/misleading (FM) or true article, are exposed to different levels of unreliable news sites in Google search results. b, The average treatment effects and 95% confidence intervals for linear regression models measuring the effect of searching online during study 5 (n = 1,485) as a unit of the standard deviation of the dependent variable. Searching online increased the probability that a respondent rated a false/misleading article as true (P = 0.0143). c,d, The same average treatment effects and 95% confidence intervals, but the treatment group was subset by the quality of news returned in their search engine results. c, The probability that an individual rates misinformation as true is higher in the treatment group compared with the control group among respondents whose exposure consisted of at least 10% unreliable news sites (n = 1,027, P = 0.004). The probability that an individual rates a false/misleading article as true is not different in the treatment group compared to the control group among respondents who were exposed to only very reliable news (n = 940, P = 0.927). d, The probability that an individual rates a false/misleading article as true in the treatment group compared with the control group among respondents who were exposed to the lowest quartile of news quality (n = 1,006, P = 0.0241) and the second-lowest quartile of news quality (n = 1,005, P = 0.0116). The probability that an individual rates a false/misleading article as true is not different in the treatment group compared to the control group among respondents who were exposed to the second-highest quartile of news quality (n = 1,006, P = 0.801) and the highest quartile of news quality (n = 1,008, P = 0.420). All effects were estimated using OLS with article fixed effects and standard errors clustered at the individual and article level.

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