A study by Lyons, Merola, and Reifler (2021) investigated how baseline statistics affect the average person’s understanding of the prevalence and severity of the fake news problem. The results indicated that there was no effect of information baselines on the perceived overall consumption of fake news. However, providing baseline statistics increased the perception that fake news consumption had increased, leading to heightened concern. Furthermore, exposure to the percentage of Americans exposed to fake news in 2016 decreased support for publicly funded media literacy programs. The study also found that groups held specific perceptions regarding how much fake news other groups consumed, even when not directly related (e.g., Trump supporters were more likely to think that younger people consumed more fake news).