When Epistemic Authority Collapses: Linking Fake News Media Perception and Conspiracy Beliefs to Disinformation Vulnerability

Citizens increasingly need to detect and filter disinformation, yet we know little about why some are more vulnerable than others. We examine whether forms of skepticism toward traditional epistemic authorities—fake news media perception (FNMP) and conspiracy beliefs—are associated with disinformation vulnerability. Using two-wave survey data from Spain ( N W1 = 1,207; n W2 = 821), we find that FNMP is widespread, not a fringe phenomenon. Conspiracy beliefs predict vulnerability across cross-sectional, lagged, and autoregressive models. Support for FNMP as a predictor is partial and not sustained in autoregressive models. Evidence for the interaction between FNMP and conspiracy beliefs is weak.