Confident judgments of (mis)information veracity are more, rather than less, accurate

Confidence is increasingly viewed as a barrier to recognizing misinformation, as people who are more confident tend to be more likely to believe and share false news. Here, we challenge this view by distinguishing between two types of confidence: general confidence in one’s abilities, and specific confidence in a particular judgment. Using a large, pre-registered study in which participants judge the accuracy of news posts, we demonstrate a striking dissociation between these two forms of confidence. While higher general confidence is associated with worse discernment of true versus false headlines (in line with past work), we find that higher confidence in specific judgments is associated with better truth discernment - a finding that we observe among both Democrats and Republicans. These results call for a reevaluation of the role of confidence in the detection of misinformation. Focusing on confidence in specific judgments, rather than general abilities, could play an important role in helping to mitigate belief in misinformation.