Replication Data for: Misinformation, Narratives, and Intergroup Attitudes: Evidence from India

Much research examines citizens' beliefs in misinformation and whether these beliefs can be corrected, but we know far less about how misinformation impacts social attitudes. We propose that misinformation can induce affective shifts that increase outgroup animosity and fuel polarization. Politicians amplify these effects by embedding misinformation into larger narratives of threat from outgroups. We conduct a pre-registered vignette experiment following the 2021 elections in West Bengal, India, exposing respondents to a misinformation message that invokes salient identity cleavages. We randomize whether citizens are asked about intergroup attitudes before or after exposure to misinformation, and find that treated respondents report more hostile outgroup attitudes. Corrective information fails to mitigate these negative effects, suggesting that the effects of misinformation may not operate through citizens' factual beliefs. While it is known that directional motives aid the proliferation of misinformation on social media, our study shows that misinformation itself can exacerbate social cleavages.

现有大量研究探讨公民对错误信息的信念及其是否可被纠正，但我们对错误信息如何影响社会态度的了解仍较为有限。我们提出，错误信息可引发情感转变（affective shifts），进而加剧外群体敌意（outgroup animosity）并助长两极分化。政客们通过将错误信息嵌入外群体威胁的宏大叙事中，放大了这些效应。我们在印度西孟加拉邦2021年选举后开展了一项预注册情景实验（pre-registered vignette experiment），让受访者接触一则唤起显著身份裂痕（salient identity cleavages）的错误信息。我们随机安排公民在接触错误信息前或后被问及群体间态度（intergroup attitudes），结果发现，处理组受访者（treated respondents）报告了更具敌意的外群体态度。纠正性信息（corrective information）未能缓解这些负面影响，这表明错误信息的效应可能并非通过公民的事实信念发挥作用。尽管已知定向动机（directional motives）有助于错误信息在社交媒体上的扩散，但我们的研究表明，错误信息本身即可加剧社会裂痕。