A study published on 3 November 2025 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology by G. A. Ramos and L. Van Boven examined why adults aged 55 and older share higher volumes of political false information online. Their investigation involved using samples from the United States and Brazil. Results suggest the critical role of partisan bias.
Why Older Adults Share More Political False Information: The Role of Partisan Bias According to a Study Involving Adults in the United States and Brazil
Older adults share more political false information online than younger generations—but not because they are less capable of critical thinking. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder shows it is stronger political loyalty and partisanship that drive sharing and belief in content that favors their chosen political side.
What Earlier Debates Could Not Explain
The investigation centered on concerns that older adults circulate a disproportionate amount of misleading political content. Earlier discussions often proposed cognitive decline as the primary driver. However, evidence remained inconsistent, prompting the researchers to test alternative explanations focused on political motivation and information processing.
Previous research on motivated reasoning revealed the role of partisan alignment in shaping the evaluation of political information or news and other content related to politics. It predicts that individuals weigh favorable claims as more favorable, regardless of accuracy. This provides a basis for determining and interpreting patterns in political information behavior.
The researchers gathered participants in the U.S. and Brazil during periods of intense political competition to ensure exposure to country-specific rhetoric. Participants aged 18 through 80 provided responses that allowed national comparisons. This design enabled assessment of whether partisan dynamics, rather than cognitive decline, explained age-linked outcomes.
Note there were 1716 participants in the U.S. and 697 in Brazil for a total of 2413. Each reviewed political headlines that had been classified as true or false by fact-checking teams. Headline sets included U.S. examples such as Republican claims about a papal endorsement. Headlines from Brazil included fabricated proposals attributed to former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Patterns Behind False Information Sharing
The study found that adults aged 55 and older were more predisposed to admit they would share false headlines related to politics. However, this behavior does not stem from poor analytical skills or cognitive abilities. Older adults were considered as capable as younger adults at discerning true news headlines from false ones. The following are the specific findings:
• Higher Sharing Among Older Adults
Older adults demonstrated greater willingness to share political headlines that aligned with preferred groups. These include false claims. The behavior appeared across both national samples and was not influenced by reduced ability to evaluate headline accuracy or distinguish factual statements from fabricated material.
• Greater Partisan Bias With Age
Older adults exhibited stronger partisan tendencies that influenced accuracy judgments. Favorable headlines were interpreted as more truthful regardless of fact-checking classifications. This alignment-driven process shaped confidence in political information and guided subsequent decisions about amplification and sharing.
• Stable Discrimination Performance
The study further found no evidence that age predicted weaker discrimination of true versus false information. Accuracy performance remained stable across the full age range. This pattern challenges assumptions that age-related cognitive decline explains the reason why older participants are predisposed to sharing false information.
• Replication Across National Contexts
Parallel results from U.S. and Brazil samples indicated that partisan motivation operated similarly in different political environments. Cross-national consistency demonstrated that the mechanism reflected general information processing dynamics rather than conditions that are specific to a country or unique drivers related to culture.
Rethinking Digital Literacy for Older Adults
The findings suggested that solutions for political false information require strategies that address partisan motivation rather than an exclusive focus on factual literacy. Because older adults showed stable discrimination ability, interventions must consider emotional and identity influences that shape behavior during encounters with contentious political material online.
Useful approaches may include timely prompts that encourage slower evaluation of political headlines. Such prompts can reduce reflexive reactions shaped by group loyalty. Encouraging reflection allows individuals to consider evidence before engaging with trending material that can disseminate quickly through personal networks and public platforms.
The study further emphasized that the removal of dissenting voices from online environments can intensify partisan reinforcement. Maintaining diverse connections may expose individuals to broader information sources. Such exposure can counter echo chambers and create opportunities for the correction of misleading statements before they gain wider traction.
Policy discussions may benefit from recognizing that analytical training alone may not shift alignment-driven behavior. Findings from the samples indicated that political identity strongly influenced information choices. Effective interventions may require programs that reduce partisan incentives and promote engagement with verified civic information.
It is still important to note that the study used headline-reading experiments rather than observing real-world posting behavior on actual social platforms. The samples and stimuli were also specific to U.S. and Brazil focused on partisan political headlines. These limitations mean that the findings might not be applicable in other political contexts or other media environments.
FURTHER READING AND REFERENCE
- Ramos, G. A. and Van Boven, L. 2025. “The Age of Misinformation: Older People Exhibit Greater Partisan Bias in Sharing and Evaluating (Mis)Information Accuracy.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. DOI: 1037/xge0001868