Electoral disinformation and trust in electoral authorities

Recent debates emphasise the potentially positive role of (sceptical) mistrust in keeping a watchful eye on democratic institutions, thereby strengthening their accountability. This perspective assumes that trust and perceptions of trustworthiness evolve in tandem with the actual performance of these institutions. However, people's perceptions of institutional performance can be susceptible to information disorders and motivational biases that hinder rational belief updating. If trust and trustworthiness beliefs are malleable and volatile, it calls into question the normatively appealing model of sceptical mistrust. This research investigates the extent to which disinformation affects perceptions of trustworthiness and trust in democratic institutions and explores the conditions under which these institutions can defend themselves through communicative countermeasures. To this end, we undertake a nationally representative survey experiment following the historic October 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum in Australia, which was marred by widespread information disorders and public accusations of “rigged” electoral processes. The experiment employs a two by two factorial design, incorporating three treatment groups and a control group to investigate (i) if exposure to real-life online disinformation during the referendum affects perceptions of referendum integrity; (ii) which dimension(s) of these trustworthiness perceptions relate to trust in the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC); and (iii) under which conditions factually accurate pro-integrity information from the AEC itself can mitigate declines in trust and trustworthiness beliefs. This contributes to scholarly debates on (dis)information processing and belief updating, as well as attitude formation and the measurement of trust(worthiness) surrounding highly salient political institutions such as elections. Furthermore, our findings may inform ongoing policy discussions around how best to institutionalise mistrust, for instance through fact-checking or truth in political advertising legislation, without “backfiring” and instead entrenching the negative trends that reform is seeking to relieve.