An analysis of PolitiFact ratings suggests Republicans are significantly less credible than Democrats.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University found Republican’s had made three times as many false statements as Democrats this year.

PolitiFact examines a variety of political statements and assigns a “Truth-O-Meter” rating to each one. For their analysis, the researchers examined 100 “Truth-O-Meter” ratings of Republican and Democratic statements between January 20 through May 22.

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PolitiFact rated 32 percent of Republican statements as “false” or “pants on fire,” compared to 11 percent of Democratic claims, according to a news release.

“While Republicans see a credibility gap in the Obama administration, PolitiFact rates Republicans as the less credible party,” CMPA President Dr Robert Lichter said.

A similar analysis published by the Center for Media and Public Affairs last year looked at election-related statements and found similar results. PolitiFact rated Republican statements as false roughly twice as often as Democratic statements between June 1, 2012 to September 11, 2012.

Yet another analysis of PolitiFact’s ratings by the University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics blog in 2011 also found Republicans were more likely to have false statements. Examining ratings between January 2010 to January 2011, the Smart Politics blog found Republicans were rated as false about three times more often than Democrats.

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[Image via Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons licensed]