Do Your Own Research: What Skepticism of Expertise Means for the News Media in the U.S.

Abstract

In the U.S. the availability of news information has grown exponentially while trust in traditional sources of news and information has declined. Amid this high-information, low-trust environment, many now advocate for doing your own research (DYOR) to discern accurate claims from false, misleading, or biased information. The perception that it is better to do one’s own research has important implications for information seeking and attitudes toward mainstream news and journalism. In this study, we use a panel survey to investigate DYOR perceptions in the context of the 2020 U.S. election. We find that DYOR perceptions are associated with decreased nonpartisan news use, decreased belief accuracy, and more negative attitudes toward media, highlighting how information skepticism may be contributing to adversarial views toward mainstream media and expertise. Results suggest that such perceptions encourage negative views of news media and may contribute to distrust of public institutions.