Despite the resources devoted to microtargeting in recent election campaigns, we still have a limited understanding of its impacts on the electorate. This article aims to test the reinforcement effect of microtargeted messages on voters’ attitudes. Specifically, it looks at how microtargeting influences the strength and stability of partisan affiliation and the probability of voters changing their vote choice during the 2015 Canadian election campaign. Given that individuals are not targeted randomly, entropy balancing is used to model selection into treatment and create a valid counterfactual for microtargeted individuals. This approach is complemented by an extensive sensitivity analysis to improve confidence in selection on observables. We find evidence that microtargeting reinforces party ties and makes voters less likely to defect from their preferred party.

This research examines how false beliefs shape perceptions of government transparency in times of crisis. Measuring transparency perceptions using both closed- and open-ended questions drawn from a Canadian panel survey, we show that individuals holding false beliefs about COVID-19 are more likely to have negative perceptions of government transparency. They also tend to rely on their false beliefs when asked to justify why they think governments are not being transparent about the pandemic. Our findings suggest that the inability to successfully debunk misinformation could worsen perceptions of government transparency, further eroding political support and contributing to non-compliance with public health directives.

The Canadian Election Misinformation Project was a civil society and academic partnership that aimed to rapidly identify and respond to mis- and disinformation incidents during the 44th Canadian Federal Election while evaluating the extent to which these incidents impact the attitudes and behaviours of Canadians. It also sought to develop understanding of the types and consequences of misleading and false information circulating in the public sphere in addition to supporting world-class research into the dynamics of the information ecosystem and the broad impacts of misinformation on Canadian democracy.The data shows that: 1) Although there was widespread misinformation during the 2021 Canadian federal election, the overall election was minimally impacted by mis- and disinformation; 2) Most Canadians believe the election was safe from foreign interference and that misinformation played a minimal role in the election; 3) Communities that previously focused on sharing COVID-19 misinformation adopted conspiracy theories about a broader set of topics during the election, including vaccines, climate change, and the integrity of the election; and 4) Nevertheless, a strong majority of Canadians believe that misinformation is a threat to Canadian democracy, polarizes Canadians, and threatens social cohesion.

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Le Projet sur la désinformation électorale au Québec visait à identifier et évaluer la propagation et les effets des fausses informations circulant durant l’élection provinciale québécoise de 2022. Le Projet visait également à examiner la couverture médiatique de la mésinformation, ainsi que les perceptions des citoyens sur ce phénomène. Pour ce faire, le Projet s’appuyait sur une veille humaine et informatisée des publications sur les médias sociaux en lien avec l’élection, de même que d’un sondage préélectoral et postélectoral représentatif de la population québécoise visant à évaluer l’exposition aux nouvelles vraies et fausses et les perceptions des citoyens sur l’environnement d’information et l’intégrité de l’élection. Les résultats montrent que la mésinformation est demeurée concentrée au sein de communautés spécifiques en ligne et a eu relativement peu d'influence sur l'élection. Les Québécois considèrent qu'il est difficile de distinguer l'information factuelle de la mésinformation et ont une compréhension différente du phénomène en fonction de leurs opinions politiques. Malgré la circulation de narratifs de fraude électorale, le niveau de confiance dans l'intégrité de l'élection est similaire à celui observé lors des élections précédentes. Le rapport offre des recommandations pour diminuer la propagation et l'influence de la mésinformation.