中英對照讀新聞》Older people are more likely to share fake news 老年人更可能分享假新聞

美國研究指出，65歲以上的老人更愛在臉書上分享假新聞。圖為美國麻州北安多弗鎮一名iPhone使用者，準備在手機上啟動臉書App。（美聯社檔案照）

◎陳正健

Facebook users aged 65 plus are more likely to share fake news on the platform than their younger counterparts, according to a new study.

一項新研究指出，65歲以上的臉書用戶，比年輕用戶更可能在該平台分享假新聞。

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During the 2016 US presidential campaign, researchers from Princeton University and New York University surveyed over 2,711 Facebook users. They then compared links the respondents had shared on Facebook with several websites known to share false information.

在2016年美國總統大選期間，普林斯頓大學與紐約大學研究人員調查逾2711名臉書用戶。之後，他們將受試者的臉書分享連結，與多個以分享錯誤訊息聞名的網站做比對。

The study found only 8.5 per cent of respondents shared a link from one of these websites. However, users over 65 - regardless of political affiliations - shared nearly seven times as many articles from fake news domains as 18 to 29-year-olds, the youngest age group studied.

研究發現，只有8.5％的受試者分享這些網站連結。然而，65歲以上的臉書用戶，無論政治立場為何，從假新聞網域分享文章的數量，是研究中最年輕族群18至29歲用戶的近7倍。

"It is possible that an entire cohort of Americans, now in their 60s and beyond, lacks the level of digital media literacy necessary to reliably determine the trustworthiness of news online," the authors suggested.

作者指出：「可能是美國現在整個60歲以上年齡層人士，缺乏必要的數位媒體識讀能力，得以可靠地判斷網路新聞的可信度。」

新聞辭典

political affiliation：名詞，政治立場、政治背景。例句：Does Facebook track your political affiliation and let advertisers target you?（臉書有追蹤你的政治立場，並讓廣告商鎖定你嗎？）

domain：名詞，區域、領域、網域。例句：A domain name is the name of your website.（網域名稱就是你網站的名字。）

cohort：名詞，有共同特點的一群人（通常指年紀）。例句：Millennials are the demographic cohort that follows Generation X.（千禧世代是X世代後的人口年齡群組。）