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GLOBAL NEWS | People with strong partisan views get more facts wrong on a current events test

Published: 8 August 2019

The stronger Canadians’ partisan views are, the more likely they are to choose the wrong answer on a series of factual policy questions, a survey has found.

Respondents were asked a series of neutral, factual questions, such as whether the unemployment rate was higher in 2015 or 2018, or whether the deficit had risen.

“What’s occurring here is motivated reasoning,” said McGill University computer science professor Derek Ruths. “What we’re measuring here is particular knowledge about policy facts which are likely to be contested here across the course of the campaign.

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