Older Adults Share More Political Misinformation. Here's Why

Partisanship, Not Gullibility, Drives Older Adults to Share Political Misinformation, Study Finds

Older adults are often blamed for spreading fake news online—but new research suggests their susceptibility may have less to do with gullibility and more to do with political loyalty.

A study published November 3 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Rochester Institute of Technology finds that adults aged 55 and older are significantly more likely than younger users to share political misinformation on social media. Yet this tendency, the researchers say, cannot be explained by an inability to tell true from false information. Instead, it stems from stronger partisanship that grows with age.

“We found that older people are more likely to believe as true and to share information that aligns with their party, whether that information is true or not,” said senior author Leaf Van Boven, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder.

Testing Truth and Tribalism

The research team—led by Van Boven and co-author Guilherme Ramos, an assistant professor of marketing at the Rochester Institute of Technology—surveyed nearly 2,500 adults in the United States and Brazil, ranging in age from 18 to 80. Participants were shown a series of politically charged news headlines, some real and some debunked by independent fact-checkers. The headlines were crafted to favor either conservative or liberal ideologies, depending on the political context of each country.

One false headline from the U.S. claimed that “Pope Francis shocks world and endorses Donald Trump for President.” A fabricated liberal-leaning headline from Brazil read, “Bolsonaro wants to cut 25% of civil servants’ salaries.” Participants were asked how likely they would be to share each headline on social media, and in a follow-up experiment, whether they believed the headline to be true or false.

The researchers also measured each participant’s political orientation and their cognitive reflection ability—that is, how easily they could override intuitive but incorrect responses through analytical thinking.

The Power of Partisanship

Contrary to popular assumptions, the team found no evidence that older adults are less analytical or less capable of recognizing misinformation. Instead, older respondents tended to evaluate news accuracy through a partisan lens: they were more skeptical of information that reflected poorly on their preferred political side, and less critical of information that supported it.

“They had different standards of evaluating evidence depending on whether it reflected well on their side or not,” said Van Boven. “If it made their candidate look good, they tended to assume it was true and share it.”

This partisan bias intensified with age and appeared across both nations and political contexts. Even in Brazil—home to more than 30 political parties—the same pattern emerged, suggesting that the phenomenon transcends specific political systems.

“This suggests that the two-party system is not necessarily the issue here,” said Ramos. “People in Brazil behave in the same partisan way.”

Beyond Fact-Checking

Previous research has shown that older adults share more misinformation online; for example, during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook users over 65 shared nearly seven times more fake news than those under 30. However, the reasons for this pattern have remained unclear. While some scholars attribute it to cognitive decline or poor media literacy, the CU Boulder team argues that political identity itself plays a larger role.

That insight could reshape how misinformation interventions are designed. Efforts to improve people’s ability to distinguish fact from fiction, while important, may not be enough if political allegiance overrides accuracy.

“Our study suggests that it is equally important to encourage people to behave in a less politically partisan way when communicating on social networks,” said Van Boven.

He recommends users reflect on how often—and why—they share political content. Taking a step back from partisan reflexes, he said, could help curb the viral spread of misinformation.

Courtsy: Journal of Experimental Psychology