Russian Disinformation in Ukraine

• In Event: Susceptibility to Fake News And Misinformation: Who and Why?

Abstract

Can people tell the difference between Russian disinformation and true statements? Moreover, which Russian disinformation narratives are relatively more likely to be believed, and by which audiences? We present two studies—the first an online poll, the second a nationally-representative face-to-face survey—that shed light on these questions in Ukraine, a country that has been heavily targeted by Russian government disinformation campaigns over the last decade. We find that that, on average, respondents can tell true stories from disinformation, but they are highly uncertainty. We also show that the topic of the disinformation narrative matters, with false stories about the economy more likely to be believed than those about the economy, historical experience, or the military. Additionally, we show that certain populations, in this case Russian-speaking Ukrainians and those who identify as ethnic Russians, are more likely to believe all disinformation narratives. Our findings underscore the importance of evaluating multiple disinformation narratives that align with the types of information attacks that a population is experiencing, as well as decomposing the target audiences.

Authors

• Aaron S. Erlich, McGill University

• Calvin Garner, University of Washington