Between trust and skepticism: unpacking the impact of social media skepticism on online political participation

Ruolan Deng and Saifuddin Ahmed

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 19, 4765-4779

Abstract: Despite the increasing social media skepticism in an era of online misinformation, its sociopolitical consequences remain under-explored. This study is among a few that examine the effect of skepticism on online political engagement. With an online sample collected from the U.S., we find a negative impact of social media skepticism on online political participation, mediated by social media news use and expressive use. Furthermore, cognitive ability moderates this relationship, with the negative indirect effect being more pronounced among individuals with lower cognitive ability. This research highlights the potential democratic implications of social media skepticism and enriches the knowledge of its underlying psychological mechanisms. Moreover, it offers a nuanced understanding of the contingent effect of cognitive ability, suggesting its crucial role in mitigating social media skepticism’s adverse effects. This research provides valuable insights for navigating the evolving media landscape.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2488906 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:44:y:2025:i:19:p:4765-4779

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2488906

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().