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A woman networks on social media on a smartphone. According to a new poll, 74 percent of Americans are unable to distinguish between what videos are real and what are fake on social media. (d3sign / Getty Images)

Sham Glam: 74% of Americans Can't Tell What's Real on Social Media, Study Reveals

By Levi Mikula December 30, 2023 at 4:37am

A survey was conducted by OnePoll on behalf of De Beer Group between Oct. 11-16, asking 2,000 Americans about what they deem as real and fake on social media. The survey looked at everything from social media content to clothing and accessories to food to technological advances.

According to the results, Americans believe just 37 percent of the content they see on social media is real, the New York Post reported.

The survey found that 74 percent of respondents said they can’t tell what’s real or fake anymore and that a majority of Americans can’t distinguish between real, AI and “deep fake” videos.

The survey also found that on average a person spends about 15 minutes determining if an item is real, although millennials spend an average of 20 minutes trying to decide if an item is genuine or a knockoff.

One-quarter of both Gen Z and baby boomers also think that enhanced photos are fake, higher than any other generation, Study Finds noted.

According to the poll, 18 percent of Americans are suspicious of influencer content, and 14 percent are suspicious of targeted ads. Fifty-two percent of respondents question the legitimacy of both, the Post reported.

Capitol Outlook broke down the results of the survey further, finding that 33 percent of respondents said they only own real items while 36 percent of respondents said they own both real and knockoffs.

The survey found that Gen Z owns more of a variety than any other generation, with 47 percent saying they own a mixture of real and knockoff items.

Among the respondents, 55 percent owned designer clothes, and 52 percent owned designer shoes. Forty-six percent owned name-brand handbags or wallets.

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Study Finds noted that 41 percent of respondents believed that lab-grown diamonds were fake, and according to Capitol Outlook, 37 percent owned high-end jewelry.

Thirty-three percent owned name-brand makeup, according to Capitol Outlook.

Millenials more than any other generation owned real fashion accessories, with 37 percent owning name-brand belts, jackets, and other accessories.

While 47 percent of respondents admitted they’ve purchased a knockoff item unknowingly, some admitted that they prefer that option to the genuine items. Among those that prefer knockoffs, 54 percent said that was due to a lower price tag; 38 percent said the product was almost identical to the genuine item, and 27 percent said they didn’t have the desire to own the name-brand items.

De Beers Group Director of PR for Natural Diamonds Sally Morrison said that people deserve to know whether the item they are purchasing is real or not and the consumer deserves transparency about how their products were made.

“It’s important to note that 88 percent of respondents prefer to purchase items that they will get a lot of use out of,” Morrison said in a statement, Study Finds reported. “While for some, that means sporting designer items, but for others, that means opting for the piece that they don’t mind getting damaged or ruined. It’s clear that these things perceived as either real or dupes play very different roles in their lives.”

“We now live in a world where technology is successfully replicating natural items. Today, every consumer has to make their own choices based on their personal value equations — where they think it’s worth investing, and where it matters less to them,” Morrison continued.

Thirty-five percent of respondents also deemed GMO vegetables to be real.

“One thing seems clear though — whether it’s your meat, your makeup, or your diamonds — everyone deserves full transparency about how their products were made or sourced. In the case of diamonds, there is technology available that can easily help determine whether a diamond is lab-grown or natural. People should be able to make an informed decision about what they are putting into or onto their bodies,” Morrison said, according to Capitol Outlook.

Fifty-two percent also said that plastic surgery was fake, according to Study Finds.

Based on the poll, 42 percent of respondents said that cryptocurrency is real.

The survey also found that 40 percent of respondents deemed Chatbots and AI to be fake, with millennials being most likely to say that Chatbots and AI are real.

Seventy-one percent of respondents said that over the next 10 years they expect it to be even harder to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake, Capitol Outlook noted.

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