Ideological Exposure, Authoritarianism, and Misinformation Propagation on Social Media

This study investigates the propagation of ideologically charged misinformation in India’s digital sphere, emphasizing the roles of prior exposure and authoritarian dispositions. A sample of 401 adult students (Mage = 20.81, SD = 2.24) reported perceived awareness, sharing intention, and sharing tendency for pro-right, pro-left, anti-right, and anti-left misinformation content on social media. Descriptive analyses revealed a selective diffusion tendency of misinformation rather than a uniform spread. Pro-right narratives were largely disregarded, whereas anti-right claims attracted the greatest engagement, consistent with negative partisanship. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that prior exposure to ideologically congruent content significantly predicted misinformation sharing above and beyond demographic controls, supporting the view that exposure fosters normalization of falsehoods. Right-wing authoritarianism predicted greater willingness to share pro-right and anti-left misinformation, while left-wing authoritarianism selectively predicted anti-right sharing, indicating asymmetrical dispositional pathways. Importantly, effect sizes from chi-square tests were modest, and many participants refrained from sharing content even when they judged it credible. These findings challenge alarmist accounts of an unchecked misinformation epidemic and dismiss assumptions that misinformation is primarily right-driven. Instead, results suggest that misinformation often functions less as mass persuasion than as a tool of strategic antagonism, warranting theoretical frameworks that extend beyond simple left–right dichotomies.