Fake News Exposure and Political Persuasion

Even though deception and manipulation have long been present in the exercise of power and political communication practices, it is in recent years—particularly during and after Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign—that political disinformation has received heightened attention from the public, media pundits, and academics. In this chapter, we explore the origins of what is now known as fake news, distinguish between the fake news genre and the fake news label, and examine their connection to political behaviors that challenge both democracies and non-democracies. To do so, we refer to specific situations and contexts such as 2017 German federal elections, opposition to COVID-19 lockdown measures in Spain and the United States, and the UK’s Brexit. We then summarize the main findings in the scientific literature regarding the effects of disinformation on the acquisition of false beliefs, election manipulation, voting for far-right extremist parties, and social polarization. Finally, we conclude the chapter by discussing the primary measures aimed at curbing the spread of disinformation and what recent scientific literature has revealed about their effectiveness. Specifically, we assess the role of media literacy, the collaboration between social media platforms and fact-checkers to restrain and identify fake news, the influence of audience emotions, and the limitations of purely rational-cognitive approaches in controlling fake news.