Seeing lies and laying blame: Partisanship and U.S. public perceptions about disinformation

Abstract

Using data from a nationally representative survey of 2,036 U.S. adults, we analyze partisan perceptions of the risk disinformation poses to the U.S. government and society, as well as the actors viewed as responsible for and harmed by disinformation. Our findings indicate relatively high concern about disinformation across a variety of societal issues, with broad bipartisan agreement that disinformation poses significant risks and causes harms to several groups. However, agreement ends there. Republicans and Democrats fundamentally disagree on who is responsible. We discuss the implications of this disagreement for understanding disinformation as a policy problem and the implications for policy solutions.