Digital Minds, Digital Politics: Misinformation, AI, and Political Cognition

The digital transformation of politics poses novel psychological challenges to democratic citizenship. This panel examines how citizens reason, feel, and decide in information environments shaped by social media algorithms, misinformation, and increasingly by generative artificial intelligence. Topics include the cognitive and motivational foundations of belief in misinformation and conspiracy theories; psychological effects of exposure to AI-generated content, deepfakes, and synthetic political communication; online moral outrage, incivility, and their consequences for political attitudes; and the effectiveness of inoculation, prebunking, and other interventions. Research on digital authoritarianism and the psychology of surveillance and self-censorship is also welcome. The panel connects micro-level cognitive processes to macro-level concerns about epistemic security and the informational foundations of democratic governance.