Immersive falsehood: the impact of political orientation, spatial presence, and enjoyment on deepfake credibility in immersive media

초록

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into immersive media environments enhances user experiences, making them more engaging. However, it also amplifies the influence of deepfakes, as hyper-realistic content encourages greater user engagement with deceptive content. To address this paradigm shift, we conducted a one-factor, between-subjects experiment (N = 103) that manipulated the viewing environments (immersive vs. less immersive) in which participants viewed a political advertisement deepfake of a politician warning about threats to U.S. democracy. Mediation analyses revealed that participants in the immersive media environment (i.e. VR) rated the deepfake as more credible than those in the less immersive condition (i.e. desktop). This effect was sequentially and positively mediated by spatial presence and enjoyment. Additionally, this pathway was evident only among conservatives and not among liberals concerning political ideology. The findings emphasise the importance of taking nuanced approaches to address the risks associated with immersive media environments and counter the challenges posed by hyper-realistic disinformation in such settings.

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