One of the key areas in the field of disinformation research is determining the structure of misleading messages, which makes them convincing for recipients. In previous reports and scientific publications developed as part of the CEDMO project, we described the characteristics of disinformation materials. Currently, as part of an experimental study, we are determining which attributes contribute to increasing the effective power of content aimed at manipulating and confusing recipients. We are particularly interested in factors such as: the emotionality of the message, the presence of a visible author (subjectively perceived possibility of attributing authorship), as well as the framing or justification of the message, i.e. reference to (pseudo)science or to the ethical dimension. In the study, we use an experimental design on samples representative of the residents of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The study consisted of two experiments in a 2×2 design. We used two sets of authentic disinformation materials identified as such by Demagog, a leading factchecker organization. The original material was modified to reflect the research hypotheses regarding the structure of disinformation.
Author: Michał Wenzel
Research conducted by:
Michał Wenzel, Jakub Kuś, Karina Stasiuk-Krajewska, Ivan R. Cuker
This project has received funding from the European Union under the call: DIGITAL-2023-DEPLOY-04, project 101158609. This presentation reflects the views only of the independent Consortium, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
