ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026
Political identity, algorithmic news exposure, and trust in digital media: the sequential mediating associations of motivated reasoning and misinformation susceptibility.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Background: Digital media have become a major environment in which citizens encounter political news, evaluate public affairs, and form judgments about information credibility. In algorithmically mediated news environments, trust in digital media may depend not only on platform exposure but also on how users process identity-relevant political information. Objective: This study examined how political identity and algorithmic news exposure were associated with trust in digital media through motivated reasoning and misinformation susceptibility. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 420 adult digital news users recruited through an online survey panel. Political identity, algorithmic news exposure, motivated reasoning, and trust in digital media were measured using multi-item scales. Misinformation susceptibility was assessed using a composite score derived from self-report items and a headline judgment task containing accurate and misleading political or public-affairs headlines. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling with 5,000 bootstrap samples. PROCESS Model 6 was used as a robustness check. Age, gender, education, political interest, digital news use frequency, and media literacy were included as control variables. Results: Political identity was positively associated with motivated reasoning (β = 0.359, Conclusion: The findings suggest that trust in digital media is associated with both identity-based reasoning and algorithmically structured news exposure, but primarily through motivated reasoning and misinformation susceptibility. The study suggests that trust in digital media is associated with cognitive and informational processes, such as motivated reasoning and misinformation susceptibility, rather than functioning solely as a direct correlate of platform use or political identity.
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