Who inadvertently shares deepfakes? Analyzing the role of political interest, cognitive ability, and social network size

The social and democratic implications of deepfakes (also deep fakes) technology are widely debated in the United States and elsewhere. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how online users engage with this newer form of disinformation. This study is one of the first to explore the inadvertent dee...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Saifuddin Ahmed
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159680
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:The social and democratic implications of deepfakes (also deep fakes) technology are widely debated in the United States and elsewhere. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how online users engage with this newer form of disinformation. This study is one of the first to explore the inadvertent deepfakes sharing behavior of the citizenry. Drawing on survey data collected in the United States and Singapore, this study investigates the role of political interest, cognitive ability, and social network size in inadvertent deepfakes sharing. The findings suggest that those with higher political interests are more likely to share deepfakes inadvertently. Those with lower cognitive ability are also more likely to share deepfakes inadvertently. The moderation findings suggest that the relationship between political interest and deepfakes sharing is significantly moderated by network size. As such, the likelihood of politically interested citizens sharing deepfakes intensifies in more extensive social networks. These results are consistent across both contexts.