How deepfake plausibility, media literacy, and personal attitudes shape detection, liking, and intentions to share political deepfakes on social media

The increasing realism and accessibility of political deepfakes pose serious risks to democratic discourse by blurring the line between authentic and manipulated media. The present study examined how deepfake plausibility, media literacy, and attitudes toward the person depicted in the video shape individuals’ ability to detect political deepfakes, their emotional responses (liking), and behavioral intentions (social media sharing intentions). A total of 1124 participants from the United Kingdom, Slovenia, and Italy viewed manipulated videos about climate change and immigration that varied in plausibility (technical realism and content alignment with the speaker’s publicly known stance). The results showed that high-plausibility deepfakes were less likely to be detected and received more positive evaluations than low-plausibility ones. In contrast, plausibility did not significantly influence sharing intention. Media literacy and attitudes toward the person in the video emerged as strong predictors across outcomes; higher media literacy was associated with improved detection and with reduced liking and sharing intention, while more positive attitudes were associated with reduced detection and with increased liking and sharing intention. Mediation analyses demonstrated that liking partially mediated the link between detection and sharing intention. Furthermore, moderated mediation models revealed that this indirect effect was stronger among individuals with high media literacy (for climate change videos) and favorable attitudes toward the video’s subject (for both topics). Overall, the study highlights the need for interventions that address not only detection skills but also emotional and motivational susceptibility to persuasive synthetic media. Enhancing media literacy and implementing platform-level friction mechanisms may help curb the spread of political deepfakes online.