Why do people share (mis)information? Power motives in social media

We investigated whether individuals driven by power motives are more inclined to disseminate (mis)information within their online networks. Four studies (N = 1882) assessed or manipulated chronic and context-specific power motives, alongside other social hierarchical constructs such as actual power. Our findings revealed that both chronic and context-specific power motives were significantly associated with increased dissemination of posts and news in daily interactions and in a simulated sharing task. Power-motivated individuals were found to disproportionately spread more misinformation and demonstrated greater awareness of having disseminated misinformation in the past. Moreover, sharing (mis)information appeared to reinforce the sense of power among these individuals. Effect size magnitudes were moderate in an internal meta-analysis. Interestingly, actual power per se did not influence the spread of (mis)information. This study contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on the motivations behind the spread of (mis)information on social media, highlighting the role of power motives in driving such behaviors. • Power motivated social media users overshared other people's posts and newsheadlines, including misinformation. • Power motivated social media users disproportionately spread misinformation. • They were more aware of having spread misinformation in the past than non-power motivated users. • Power motivated users had the desire to be influential online and spread posts to attain influence, acting as brokers.