People are now inundated with news from multiple sources every day, as we get instant alerts about events around the globe.

But despite this unprecedented abundance of information, it has become increasingly difficult to know what's true and what's not.

Why do we end up believing things that are wrong, and how can we all be smarter consumers of news?

Rob Brotherton, a psychologist and academic living in New York, aims to answer these questions in his new book, Bad News: Why We Fall for Fake News.

He joined us on The Last Word to discuss it in more detail.

Listen to the interview in full by pressing the play button on this page.