Americans over 50 are worse than younger
people at telling facts from opinions, according to a new study by Pew Research Center.
Given 10 statements, five each of fact and opinion, younger Americans correctly identified both the facts and the opinions at higher rates than older Americans did. Forty-four percent of younger
people identified all five opinions as opinions, while only 26 percent of older
people did. And 18-to-29-year-olds performed more than twice as well as the 65+ set. Of the latter group, only
17 percent classified all five facts as factual statements.