A Matter of Misunderstanding? Explaining (Mis)Perceptions of Electoral Integrity across 25 Different Nations

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how trust in traditional and social media correlate with misperceptions of electoral integrity. Relying on insights from political communication research on exposure to misinformation and selective exposure mechanisms, as well as insights on the different roles of traditional and social media in different regime types, we argue that misperceptions of election integrity are likely driven in large part by the interplay between the trust people have in different media sources and the context (i.e., the level of press freedom) in which the elections take place. Using data from a survey conducted in 25 countries across the world, we find that trust in information from traditional media decreases misperceptions, while trust in information from social media increases misperceptions. However, both these effects are smaller when press freedom is restricted. In countries with low levels of press freedom, trust in social media is even associated with lower levels of misperceptions.