People rely on their existing political beliefs to identify election misinformation

Rather than assuming that people are motivated to fact-check, we investigated the process that people go through when and if they encounter political misinformation. Using a digital diary method, we asked 38 participants to collect examples of political misinformation during Australia’s 2025 federal election and explain why they determined it to be misinformation (n = 254). The top rationale given by participants for their decisions was that the claims contradicted their existing knowledge (28%), followed by perceptions of bias (22%). An independent fact checker analysed the examples and revealed a considerable gap: 10% of submissions were found to be false, while 37% were found to be true.