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Online Disinformation Predicts Inaccurate Beliefs About Election Fairness Among Both Winners and Losers
[journal article]
Abstract Electoral disinformation is feared to variously undermine democratic trust by inflaming incorrect negative beliefs about the fairness of elections, or to shore up dictators by creating falsely positive ones. Recent studies of political misperceptions, however, suggest that disinformation has at best... view more
Electoral disinformation is feared to variously undermine democratic trust by inflaming incorrect negative beliefs about the fairness of elections, or to shore up dictators by creating falsely positive ones. Recent studies of political misperceptions, however, suggest that disinformation has at best minimal effects on beliefs. In this article, we investigate the drivers of public perceptions and misperceptions of election fairness. We build on theories of rational belief updating and motivated reasoning, and link public opinion data from 82 national elections with expert survey data on disinformation and de facto electoral integrity. We show that, overall, people arrive at largely accurate perceptions, but that disinformation campaigns are indeed associated with less accurate and more polarized beliefs about election fairness. This contributes a cross-nationally comparative perspective to studies of (dis)information processing and belief updating, as well as attitude formation and trust surrounding highly salient political institutions such as elections.... view less
Es wird befürchtet, dass Desinformation bei Wahlen das demokratische Vertrauen untergräbt, indem sie falsche negative Überzeugungen über die Fairness von Wahlen schürt. Neuere Studien über politische Fehleinschätzungen deuten jedoch darauf hin, dass Desinformation bestenfalls minimale Auswirkungen a... view more
Es wird befürchtet, dass Desinformation bei Wahlen das demokratische Vertrauen untergräbt, indem sie falsche negative Überzeugungen über die Fairness von Wahlen schürt. Neuere Studien über politische Fehleinschätzungen deuten jedoch darauf hin, dass Desinformation bestenfalls minimale Auswirkungen auf die Überzeugungen hat. In diesem Artikel untersuchen die Autor*innen die Triebkräfte der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung und Fehlwahrnehmung der Fairness von Wahlen.... view less
Keywords
election; disinformation; integrity; attitude formation; confidence; international comparison
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
misperceptions; disinformation; Bayesian updating; motivated reasoning; World Values Survey (Round 6, 2010-2014, and Round 7, 2017-2020) and the European Values Study (Round 5, 2017-2020)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2024
Page/Pages
p. 965-998
Journal
Comparative political studies, 57 (2024) 6
ISSN
1552-3829
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed