American public discourse about online misinformation often exaggerates its prevalence and persuasiveness, potentially harming Americans’ evaluations of democratic governance. This project uses two studies conducted during the 2020 and 2022 elections to test whether the presumed prevalence/persuasiveness of online misinformation (P3OM)—the perception that online misinformation is both widespread and persuasive—undermines Americans’ satisfaction with democracy. Fixed-effects regression analysis of an eight-wave online panel survey reveals that both dimensions of P3OM are correlated with reduced democratic satisfaction. A follow-up online survey experiment provides evidence that exposure to messages about online misinformation reduces democratic satisfaction. Theoretical implications and strategies for reducing the presumed influence of online misinformation on democratic satisfaction are discussed.
Mortenson et al. (Thu,) studied this question.