The Journal of Communication published research from PhD student Qin Li that shows people’s ability to discriminate between true and false factual claims about politics varies based on whether they live in a battleground state and the state-level of partisan segregation. 

Li’s research focuses on individuals’ belief sensitivity, or their ability to discriminate between true and false factual political statements. Specifically, her research focuses on the relationship between battleground state status and belief sensitivity and found that the difference between liberals’ and conservatives’ belief sensitivity is larger among people in battleground states than those in Democratic-leaning states during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. She found that living in a less politically segregated state resulted in higher belief sensitivity.

The research findings appear in her paper: “Misperceptions in sociopolitical context: belief sensitivity’s relationship with battleground state status and partisan segregation.”