Factors Affecting Disinformation Acceptance during the Russia-Ukraine War: Evidence from Russia and China

• In Event: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Social Media Platforms

Abstract

Authoritarian states have been constructing alternative narratives to liberal discourse by spreading politized disinformation on social media platforms. Existing literature mainly focuses on the diffusion of disinformation and its fluences on the public in democracies, while far too little attention has been paid to the public’s reactions to these falsehoods, especially in the context of international conflict in authoritarian states. This study aims to reveal the factors that influence the public’s acceptance of disinformation in Russia and China during the Russia-Ukraine war. Drawing on the theory of elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we used automatized text analysis techniques and econometrics to interrogate the effects of information readability, argument quality, source authority, and source influence on misinformation acceptance. The study collects post and comments data about a series of disinformation produced by Russia that disseminates broadly on the Russian and Chinese social media Vkontakte and Sina Weibo. Since it is extremely difficult for separating propaganda and disinformation in intensive regional conflicts with large confusion and uncertainty, we only focus on the disinformation debunked by the reputable fact-checking agency NewsGuard. This study extends the application arena of ELM in accounting for the public’s acceptance of misinformation in a war context and also complements the current debate about disinformation acceptance by looking into the disinformation response pattern of public audiences in authoritarian states.

Authors

• Genia Kostka, Freie Universität Berlin

• Alexander M. Libman, Freie Universität Berlin