Paper Number

ICIS2025-2331

Paper Type

Short

Abstract

This study investigates how gendered disinformation on social media contributes to affective polarization, emphasizing intersectional targeting. Gendered disinformation—false or misleading content attacking individuals based on gender—reinforces stereotypes, undermines women’s credibility, and exacerbates emotional divides online. Drawing on intersectionality theory and affective polarization theory, we analyze three months of Facebook posts from seven prominent fact-checking pages. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conduct qualitative content analysis to identify disinformation types, semantic network analysis to assess ideological clustering, and Poisson/Negative Binomial regression to evaluate emotional responses (in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination) across six Facebook reaction types. Findings reveal that gendered disinformation amplifies in-group favoritism and out-group hostility, especially when intersecting with other identity markers such as race or political affiliation. The study contributes a typology of gendered disinformation tactics and offers implications for platform governance, policy interventions, and digital literacy initiatives aimed at mitigating the polarizing effects of identity-based attacks.

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Dec 14th, 12:00 AM

GENDERED DISINFORMATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA POLARIZATION

This study investigates how gendered disinformation on social media contributes to affective polarization, emphasizing intersectional targeting. Gendered disinformation—false or misleading content attacking individuals based on gender—reinforces stereotypes, undermines women’s credibility, and exacerbates emotional divides online. Drawing on intersectionality theory and affective polarization theory, we analyze three months of Facebook posts from seven prominent fact-checking pages. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conduct qualitative content analysis to identify disinformation types, semantic network analysis to assess ideological clustering, and Poisson/Negative Binomial regression to evaluate emotional responses (in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination) across six Facebook reaction types. Findings reveal that gendered disinformation amplifies in-group favoritism and out-group hostility, especially when intersecting with other identity markers such as race or political affiliation. The study contributes a typology of gendered disinformation tactics and offers implications for platform governance, policy interventions, and digital literacy initiatives aimed at mitigating the polarizing effects of identity-based attacks.

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