Fig. 7.

An illusory perception of accuracy mediates the relationship between political similarity and information seeking behavior. (a) The true correlation between how accurate a source was on the blap task and how like-minded they were to the participant was zero. Nevertheless, participants ratings revealed an illusory perception that the two were related (r = 0.36 p < .001). (b) Participants rated accurate sources as more competent on the blap task, but also rated politically like-minded sources as more competent on the blap task. (c) A mediation model revealed that perceived competence partially mediated the relationship between political similarity and choice of which source to hear from about blaps. Error bars represent SEM. ^*p < .05,^**p < .01, ^***p < .001.