Hierarchy-Enhancing Misinformation: Social Dominance Motives Are Uniquely Associated With Republicans’ Belief In and Sharing of Election-Related Misinformation

Abstract

The aftermath of the 2020 US Presidential election saw a deluge of election-related misinformation which falsely asserted that the election was “stolen” from Donald Trump. Since then a majority of Republicans have consistently expressed belief in this misinformation, despite no evidence for its veracity and its motivating role in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Here we present evidence, using a repeated-measures design (N = 355) across a highly generalizable stimulus set, that Republicans’ support for 2020 US election-related misinformation and willingness to share it on social media are uniquely associated with social dominance motives, along with conspiracy mentality and party identification strength. We find little evidence that right-wing authoritarianism is associated with the belief in or sharing of election-related misinformation, and that cognitive reflectiveness is only associated with sharing, but not belief. We introduce the theoretical lens of Hierarchy-Enhancing Misinformation to interpret these findings, arguing that election-related misinformation is best understood as a functional mechanism by which group-based dominance hierarchies are socially and psychologically reinforced.

Exposure Detection Applications Acceptance: The Case of COVID-19

“…Social media and productivity apps often have high privacy and ethical concerns as they can be risky and dangerous to individuals and governments; this may be evidenced by the Australian and U.S. government attempts to prohibit Chinese-owned social media apps such as TikTok and WeChat, claiming that these apps have gathered the users’ personal data, and have built a considerable understanding from the information of those users [ 109 ]. Data may also be used unethically, as in the recent U.S. elections, whereby both YouTube and Facebook were used to shift the election outcome to benefit the rival foreign governments [ 110 ]. This led to the U.S. government’s decision to ban new downloads for TikTok and WeChat for the citizens’ privacy protection.…”

Repairing Broken Windows and Broken Trust: Combating Disinformation and Extremism in Law Enforcement through Civics and National Service

“…The de-emphasis of civics education in the American education system has led to a loss of knowledge of the functions of government institutions, a degradation in critical thinking skills, and, collectively, to a growing vulnerability to both disinformation tactics and authoritarian rhetoric (Rich and Kavanagh, 2018, 133;McGeehan, 2018, 51). Additionally, there is a documented overlap between RWA and SDO traits and susceptibility to misinformation and disinformation (Frischlich et al, 2021;Kerr and Wilson, 2021;Klebba and Winter, 2021;Lees and Parker, 2021). Social media has been found to have a compounding effect on the virulence of weaponized falsehoods, and a strong focus on digital literacy would necessarily have to be included in any large-scale civics education campaign (McGeehan, 2018, 51).…”

“…SDO, on the other hand, deeply values hierarchical social structures, inherent inequality, the concept of a superior group of people versus undeserving lower groups (Pratto et al, 1994;Whitley, 1999;Duriez and Van Hiel, 2002). Additional overlap between the two has been found in susceptibility to misinformation and disinformation, extremist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, a rejection of credibility of scientists, and, subsequently, of the scientific findings that scientists produce (Frischlich et al, 2021;Kerr and Wilson, 2021;Klebba and Winter, 2021;Lees and Parker, 2021). These similarities and differences have been illustrated by Duckitt and Sibley: "RWA should be more predictive of the…brand of fascism characterized by Franco's Spain, whereas SDO should be more predictive of the aggressive, dominative, militaristic fascism that was characterized by Hitler's Nazi party" (2010,(1877)(1878).…”