Affective Polarization and Misinformation Belief.

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Social Psychology
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Affective polarization has known social consequences but limited research on its impact on political attitudes and behavior.
• Understanding how affective polarization influences political information processing is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal relationship between affective polarization and belief in misinformation.
• To examine how political sophistication moderates this relationship.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) 2020 Social Media Study and Time Series Study.
• A survey experiment was conducted to establish causality.

Main Results:

• Higher affective polarization predicts greater belief in in-party-congruent misinformation and lower belief in out-party-congruent misinformation.
• The relationship is causal and holds across partisan groups, independent of partisan strength and ideology.
• Political sophistication exacerbates, rather than mitigates, the link between affective polarization and misinformation belief.

Conclusions:

• Affective polarization significantly impacts misinformation belief, posing a challenge for informed political discourse.
• Interventions aimed at reducing affective polarization are necessary, as education alone may not resolve the issue.