BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Personality and Social Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1574840

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Phenomenon of Misinformation in Different Domains and by Various DisciplinesView all articles

False Failures, Real Distrust: The Impact of an Infrastructure Failure Deepfake on Government Trust

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
  • 2Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Tōkyō, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Deepfakes today represent a novel threat that can induce widespread distrust more effectively than traditional disinformation due to its potential for greater susceptibility. In this study, we specifically test how individuals' exposure to deepfakes related to public infrastructure failures is linked to distrust in government, with their cognitive reflection and education possibly acting as a buffer. Using experimental data from the United States and Singapore, our findings indicate that exposure to deepfakes depicting a localized infrastructure failure, i.e., the collapse of a public bridge, heightens distrust in government among American participants but not Singaporeans. Additionally, education was found to be a significant moderator such that higher education levels is associated with lower political distrust when exposed to deepfakes. The role of deepfakes in influencing distrust in the government and the broader implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: Deepfakes, cognitive ability, experiment, disinformation, Political trust, Government, Deep fake, misinformation

Received: 11 Feb 2025; Accepted: 29 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ahmed, Masood, Bee and Ichikawa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Saifuddin Ahmed, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

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