Study: Republicans Respond to Political Polarization by Spreading Misinformation, Democrats Don't
www.ama.org
This Journal of Marketing study finds Republicans react to political polarization by sharing misinformation. The study calls for stronger fact-checking, media literacy education, and less polarizing rhetoric from political figures and media outlets.

Summary

A new Journal of Marketing study finds that political polarization drives Republicans to spread misinformation to gain partisan advantage, while Democrats do not exhibit this behavior.

Republicans value winning highly and are more likely to share misinformation, even when its truth is questionable.

Six studies, including analyses of fact-checked statements, surveys, and presidential speeches, support these findings.

The spread of misinformation undermines democratic processes, such as increased restrictive voting laws after the 2020 election.

Researchers suggest reducing polarization, investing in fact-checking, and expanding media literacy education to combat misinformation’s impact.

  • @NightwingdragonEnglish
    6•2 days ago

    I’m going to continue the distrust because truth isn’t relative to who is in power.

    In a world where the media is already changing their tone and coverage of Trump to be more favorable towards him, do you honestly think you’ll even be able to tell what the truth is soon? Who do you think is going to be willing to report the truth when doing so could lead you to being investigated or jailed on trumped up charges?

    Remember, we just had a case where a judge explicitly stated that trump committed rape as most people and most jurisdictions defined it, and ABC had to cough up $15+ million and apologize to him for simply repeating the judge’s words and reporting on it. What kind of effect do you think that’s going to have? I’ll tell you what kind of effect it’s going to have: It’s going to cause media outlets to stop reporting objective truth, or at least spin it to make it much more favorable for Trump, out of fear of multimillion dollar lawsuits, boycotts, and threats of criminal investigations and/or prosecutions. The “Truth” will simply become whatever Trump says it is, because media outlets will be either unwilling or unable to report otherwise.