Misinformation's Influence on Voting Intentions: Older Adults' Experiences with Manipulative Narratives on Social Media

Older adults habitually encounter misinformation, yet little is known about their experiences with it. In this study, we employed a mixed-methods approach, combining a survey (n=119) with semi-structured interviews (n=21), to investigate how older adults in America conceptualize, discern, and contextualize social media misinformation. Given the historical context of misinformation being used to influence voting outcomes, our study specifically examined this phenomenon from a voting intention perspective. Our findings reveal that 62% of participants intending to vote Democrat perceived a manipulative political purpose behind the spread of misinformation, whereas only 5% of those intending to vote Republican believed that misinformation serves a political dissent purpose. Regardless of voting intentions, most participants relied on source heuristics and fact-checking to discern truth from misinformation on social media. A major concern among participants was the biased reasoning influenced by personal values and emotions affected by misinformation. Notably, 74% of participants intending to vote Democrat were concerned that misinformation would escalate extremism in the future. In contrast, those intending to vote Republican, those undecided, or those planning to abstain expressed concerns that misinformation would further erode trust in democratic institutions, particularly in public health and free and fair elections. During our interviews, we discovered that 63% of participants intending to vote Republican mentioned that Republican or conservative voices often disseminate misinformation, even though these participants were closely aligned with this political ideology.