Limits of functional illiteracy in explaining human misinformation: the knowledge illusion, values, and the dual process theory of thought

functional illiteracy has been employed to explain the tendency to believe in fake news, conspiracy theories and the general spread of misinformation (Koppel and Langer, 2020; Moscadelli et al., 2020; Moro and Fioravanzi, 2022; McPhedran et al., 2023). Even EU funded projects mention this connection. Many articles in newspapers and on social media also attest to functional illiteracy for explaining human foolishness and gullibility. From this point of view, the Italian case is of particular interest. The media dissemination of the OECD (2019) PIAC survey results, which report to a high number of functional illiterates in Italy, has received particular resonance in public discourse. Journalists, pundits, and even politicians resort to the widespread prevalence of functional illiteracy to justify behaviors contrary to their own beliefs and expectations (voting behavior, tendency to believe in fake news, anti-scientific beliefs). The Italian Wikipedia page Analfabetismo Funzionale2 confirms this relationship (differently from the English version) citing the Treccani encyclopedia, a medical website and a mathematical blog. Given the widespread use of functional illiteracy by international organizations as well as within public discourse and across several disciplines, in this opinion paper, we criticize the use of this concept in light of its measurement issues and the literature on human misinformation.