Journal article
Immunizing the Public Against AI-Generated Disinformation: Testing the Effects of Inoculation Mode and Issue Attitude on Inoculation Likelihood of Political Deepfakes
Journalism & mass communication quarterly, Vol.102(4), pp.1102-1134
12/2025
DOI: 10.1177/10776990251357949
Abstract
Political deepfakes are considered detrimental to democracy by eroding public trust and distorting communication. Scholars have advocated for inoculation strategies to counter deepfakes, yet they have found that individuals’ partisan attitudes can undermine the effects of inoculation. Guided by inoculation theory and motivated reasoning theory, we conducted a 3 (Inoculation Mode: Passive vs. Active vs. No Inoculation) × 2 (Deepfake Attack: Pro-Attitudinal vs. Counter-Attitudinal) between-subjects experiment. Results show that inoculation increases deepfake awareness, intention to debunk deepfakes, and information-seeking behaviors, while reducing the perceived credibility of deepfake messages. However, exposure to counter-attitudinal deepfakes led to greater agreement with embedded disinformation.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Immunizing the Public Against AI-Generated Disinformation: Testing the Effects of Inoculation Mode and Issue Attitude on Inoculation Likelihood of Political Deepfakes
- Creators
- Bingbing ZhangSang Jung KimAlex Scott
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journalism & mass communication quarterly, Vol.102(4), pp.1102-1134
- DOI
- 10.1177/10776990251357949
- ISSN
- 1077-6990
- eISSN
- 2161-430X
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Number of pages
- 33
- Grant note
- Easton Strategic Fund from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Iowa
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Easton Strategic Fund from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Iowa.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2025
- Academic Unit
- Center for Social Science Innovation; School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Record Identifier
- 9985033876802771
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