Is there an ideological asymmetry in the moral approval of spreading misinformation by politicians

Abstract We investigated the relationship between ideology and moral (dis)approval of spreading misinformation by politicians. In experiment 1 ( N  = 254), higher scores on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) were positively related to tolerance of politicians lying by commission, paltering, and lying by omission. Also, republicans were more tolerant towards politicians lying by commission and paltering than democrats. Experiment 2 ( N  = 395) replicated these results, and examined partisan bias. Democrats (but not republicans) showed a partisan bias in tolerance of lying by commission, whereas republicans (but not democrats) showed a partisan bias in tolerance of paltering. In both experiments, RWA and SDO mediated the relationships between political party and approval of spreading misinformation. These results suggest that right-wing individuals are more tolerant to the spreading of misinformation by politicians, although it should be noted that overall levels of approval were relatively low.