Motivated Circulation: How Misinformation and Ideological Alignment Influence the Circulation of Political Content

Authors

  • Benjamin Bowyer University of California, Riverside
  • Joseph Kahne University of California, Riverside

Keywords:

misinformation, social media, motivated reasoning, survey experiment

Abstract

This article investigates the factors that shape the circulation of political content on social media. We analyze an experiment embedded within a nationally representative survey of U.S. youth that randomly assigned participants to see a short post designed to resemble content that circulates through social media. The post was experimentally manipulated to vary in both its ideology and whether it contained factually inaccurate information. In general, we found that participants’ intentions to circulate a post on social media were strongly influenced by whether that post aligned with their ideology, but not by whether it contained misinformation. The relative effects of ideological alignment and misinformation were found to differ according to participants’ level of political knowledge and engagement, indicating that different groups of young people are susceptible to particular kinds of misinformation.

Author Biographies

Benjamin Bowyer, University of California, Riverside

Benjamin Bowyer is a Senior Researcher at the Civic Engagement Research Group at the University of California, Riverside. His research interests center around the effects of social context on political attitudes and behavior.

Joseph Kahne, University of California, Riverside

Joseph Kahne is the Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Professor for Education Policy and Politics and Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG) at the University of California, Riverside. Professor Kahne's research and writing focuses on ways that education and digital media influence youth civic and political development.

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Published

2019-11-14

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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