The detection of political deepfakes
Analytic thinking and political interest were positively associated with identifying deepfakes and negatively associated with the perceived accuracy of a fake news piece about a leaked video (whether or not the deepfake video itself was presented).
Abstract
supplementary Abstract Deepfake technology, allowing manipulations of audiovisual content by means of artificial intelligence, is on the rise. This has sparked concerns about a weaponization of manipulated videos for malicious ends. A theory on deepfake detection is presented and three pre-registered studies examined the detection of deepfakes in the political realm (featuring UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Studies 1-3, or former US president Barack Obama, Study 2). Based on two system models of information processing as well as recent theory and research on fake news, individual differences in analytic thinking and political interest were examined as predictors of correctly detecting deepfakes. Analytic thinking (Studies 1 and 2) and political interest (Study 1) were positively associated with identifying deepfakes and negatively associated with the perceived accuracy of a fake news piece about a leaked video (whether or not the deepfake video itself was presented, Study 3). Implications for research and practice are discussed.