Ahmed Saifuddin, Masood Muhammad, Bee Adeline Wei Ting, Ichikawa Kei
Wee Kim Wee School for Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Computational Social Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2025 May 23;16:1574840. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1574840. eCollection 2025.
Deepfakes today represent a novel threat that can induce widespread distrust more effectively than traditional disinformation due to its potential for greater susceptibility. In this study, we specifically test how individuals' exposure to deepfakes related to public infrastructure failures is linked to distrust in government, with their cognitive reflection and education possibly acting as a buffer. Using experimental data from the United States and Singapore, our findings indicate that exposure to deepfakes depicting a localized infrastructure failure, i.e., the collapse of a public bridge, heightens distrust in government among American participants but not Singaporeans. Additionally, education was found to be a significant moderator such that higher education levels is associated with lower political distrust when exposed to deepfakes. The role of deepfakes in influencing distrust in the government and the broader implications of these findings are discussed.
如今,深度伪造构成了一种新的威胁,由于其更高的易感性,它比传统虚假信息更能有效地引发广泛的不信任。在本研究中,我们专门测试了个人接触与公共基础设施故障相关的深度伪造内容如何与对政府的不信任相关联,其认知反思和教育可能起到缓冲作用。利用来自美国和新加坡的实验数据,我们的研究结果表明,接触描绘局部基础设施故障(即公共桥梁坍塌)的深度伪造内容会加剧美国参与者对政府的不信任,但对新加坡人则不然。此外,研究发现教育是一个重要的调节因素,即当接触深度伪造内容时,较高的教育水平与较低的政治不信任相关。本文讨论了深度伪造在影响对政府的不信任方面的作用以及这些发现的更广泛影响。