Abstract

Trust lies at the heart of the disinformation crisis, as citizens must decide which narratives to follow and whether to accept “alternative truths.” Therefore, trust in institutions that publish reliable information can act as a shield against disinformation. This comparative study investigates the role of trust in news media and political actors and general attitudes toward democracy in the willingness to spread disinformation (i.e., likes, shares, or comments). Findings of this study show that news media trust plays a subordinate role but that trust in social media news has a strong relationship with willingness to spread disinformation. In 2020, citizens in the United States and United Kingdom who had high trust in their governments were more willing to spread disinformation, whereas in France and Belgium, citizens who trusted opposition leaders were more likely to do so. Moreover, citizens who were satisfied with democracy appeared to be less vulnerable to disinformation, with the exception of those in the United States. Therefore, political actors bear great responsibility for the current (dis)information crisis because they can exploit citizens’ trust to their advantage.

摘要

信任是虚假信息危机的核心，因为公民必须决定遵循哪些叙述以及是否接受“另类真相”。因此，对发布可靠信息的机构的信任可以起到抵御虚假信息的作用。这项比较研究调查了对新闻媒体和政治行为者的信任以及对民主的一般态度在传播虚假信息（即点赞、分享或评论）的意愿中的作用。这项研究的结果表明，新闻媒体信任起着次要作用，但对社交媒体新闻的信任与传播虚假信息的意愿有很强的关系。2020 年，对政府高度信任的美国和英国公民更愿意传播虚假信息，而在法国和比利时，信任反对派领导人的公民更有可能这样做。此外，对民主感到满意的公民似乎不太容易受到虚假信息的影响，但美国公民除外。因此，政治行为者对当前的（虚假）信息危机负有重大责任，因为他们可以利用公民的信任为自己谋取利益。