Nation Branding and Misinformation Susceptibility: Understanding the Intersections Between Immigration-Related Psychographics, Demographics, and Perceptions of Mexico

Abstract

This study seeks to bring the nation branding literature, conceived as a form of strategic communication, in conversation with misinformation scholarship by examining how Americans’ perceptions of a nation (Mexico, in this study) are impacted by their immigration-related perceptions. Immigration-related misinformation has been a serious concern in the last decade globally, and particularly in the United States. The findings of this study suggest that political ideology was a significant predictor of immigration misinformation susceptibility. Misinformation-amplifying publics held statistically significant lower overall perceptions of Mexico’s country image when compared to misinformation-receptive, misinformation-vulnerable, and misinformation-immune publics. These results have direct implications to the nation branding work conducted by Mexico in the United States.