One Person’s Belief Is Another’s Propaganda: Disinformation Discourse, Cross-State Reciprocity and Motivated Reasoning in Authoritarian Russia

• In Event: Disinformation and the Ukraine War: Historical and Cross-Cultural Approaches

Abstract

References to fake news and disinformation have become central to political communication in democracies and autocracies alike. While democratic governments attempt to combat disinformation spread by authoritarian regimes, populist politicians have adopted the same discourse to discredit their political rivals. In an illustration of cross-state reciprocity, autocrats embrace the same rhetoric as a propaganda tool to refute criticism of the government. This raises the issue of the second-order effects of disinformation or the effects of citizens' awareness of disinformation. To explore this matter, I focus on the effects of disinformation discourse in authoritarian Russia. Following the invasion of Ukraine, Putin's regime turned disinformation discourse into one of its primary propaganda strategies. I argue that as censorship and persuasion are no longer as effective in saturated media environments, raising awareness of disinformation can help the autocrat shape citizens’ attitudes. To explore this issue, I rely on a preregistered online experiment. I expose subjects to warnings about potential disinformation, additionally manipulating expert source cues and partisan cues. I hypothesise that awareness of disinformation decreases trust in regime propaganda. However, it spurs psychological processes beneficial for the autocrat. First, it taps into the process of motivated reasoning by giving citizens cognitive resources to shield themselves from counter-attitudinal information by discarding it as disinformation, and thus reinforces pro-regime beliefs. Second, it increases the perception of others as manipulated, limiting citizens’ exposure to anti-regime information. Third, it increases the sense of threat, increasing support for repressive legislation.

Author

• Maxim Alyukov, U of Manchester (UK)