Openness
Diverse Social Identities Can Protect Against Misinformation
How complexity in who we are makes us more open to facts—and to each other.
Posted April 3, 2025 Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Key points
- Diverse social identities reduce bias and make us more resilient to misinformation.
- Overlapping identities tied to one group make us more defensive and less open to new information.
- Expanding our social circles and roles builds identity complexity—and helps bridge divides.
Why do some people seem more resistant to misinformation than others? One important, yet often overlooked, factor may be the diversity of our social identities. Our identities shape how we interpret the world, evaluate new information, and relate to others. And having a broader, more complex set of social identities can help us stay grounded, reduce bias, and become more resilient to misinformation.
Our social identities shape how we see ourselves and how we interpret the world around us. These identities come with shared values, and aligning with them often boosts our self-esteem. For example, being a fan of a sports team can make us feel connected and proud when the team wins, so much so that we might even insist the referee made a bad call, just to stay loyal. This same dynamic can influence how we evaluate more serious information, especially when our political or social identities are at stake.
While thinking a penalty is unfair during a game may not be particularly significant, things become more consequential when our political identity is involved. If political identity plays a major role in how we see ourselves, we may feel especially driven to support our political group, attack opposing groups, and even become more susceptible to false information that aligns with these goals. Research demonstrates that partisanship can bias how we evaluate information. Sharing misinformation within ideologically similar networks spreads it further, reinforcing false beliefs. My research has shown that Democrats and Republicans with less diverse personal networks are more vulnerable to believing misinformation. This lack of diversity also correlates with stronger identification with political identity. The more ideologically uniform our networks, the more likely we are to accept falsehoods that reinforce our sense of belonging.
If a lack of network diversity increases biases, can greater ideological diversity reduce them? There is evidence that suggests it can. Research shows that people with more ideologically diverse networks tend to have less polarized beliefs, and meaningful discussions across differences can reduce polarization. However, I argue that we should also strive for a broader set of social identities that are independent from one another. This is a concept known in social psychology as “social identity complexity.”
Social identity complexity refers to having multiple, distinct social identities that don’t overlap heavily. Research shows that people with higher social identity complexity are less biased and more tolerant of outgroups. Having more contact with diverse groups of people also predicts higher social identity complexity. Again, having diverse social connections can help keep us grounded. Psychologist Peter Coleman has written about how greater social identity complexity can reduce political polarization, and he even provides exercises for people to evaluate their social identity on his website. The influence of a diverse set of social identities on self-esteem has been well-documented over decades, and this idea was recently promoted again by psychologist Adam Grant. I argue that this same principle extends to how we process information.
When we have low social identity complexity, many of our identities overlap significantly. For example, imagine someone who has just four central identities: their political identity, religious identity, friend identity, and volunteer identity. Now imagine all these identities completely overlap: their politics and religion share all of the same values, their friends are all from the same church, and they even volunteer at the same place as well. Such overlap means their self-esteem depends on a narrow set of identities and the meanings and values associated with them. When information challenges one of these core identities, such as their political beliefs, it can feel like a personal attack on their entire sense of self, leading to heightened defensiveness and rejection of that information.
Conversely, when we have many identities that are distinct and independent, a challenge to one identity doesn’t feel as threatening. For instance, let’s imagine another example where someone has the same core identities as above: a political identity, a religious identity, a friend identity, and a volunteer identity. However, there is not a complete overlap between the religious and political identity. And this person has friends from many places, not just their church. And they volunteer somewhere completely separate from their church, such as a pet shelter that has entirely different people. Having such a broad set of social identities (and their meanings and values) to derive self-esteem from means that no single piece of negative information feels like a critical attack on our entire self. This balance helps us process negative information more constructively, as we can rely on a broader, more stable sense of self-esteem.
At a broader level, the increasing issues of isolation and loneliness in the U.S. make it crucial to create more spaces where diverse groups of people can connect. Ideally, creating these spaces would then foster meaningful relationships and shared activities. This could include more community events, sports, or other local interests that bring people together. On a personal level, expanding your identity can start with something as simple as joining a new group, volunteering outside your usual circles, or building friendships with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. A more interconnected community would also help build bridges across divides and strengthen our collective resilience. The importance of a diverse set of social identities is a major point I discuss more in my forthcoming book, Misguided, and I argue it’s one of the best ways we can protect ourselves against misinformation.
When our entire sense of self is tied to one tightly knit group or worldview, we’re more likely to reject information that threatens it. But when we draw meaning and self-worth from a variety of roles and communities, we become more open, more flexible, and less reactive. Strengthening our social identity complexity won’t just help us navigate misinformation—it can also make us more connected and resilient in a polarized world.
This article also appears on Misguided: The Newsletter.
