Alternative sources use and misinformation exposure and susceptibility: The curvilinear moderation effects of socioeconomic status

•This study responds to a call for rediscovering the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in studies of misinformation exposure and susceptibility.•Poisson regression models were fitted with the data coming from an online survey with 955 Chinese respondents.•Alternative sources use in mainland China is found to be positively related to misinformation exposure and susceptibility, respectively.•Socioeconomic status (SES), indicated by income levels, is found to quadratically moderate the relationship between alternative sources use and misinformation exposure/susceptibility. In contrast, educational attainment, another usual indicator of SES, does not show support for a quadratic moderation effect hypothesis.