How disinformation and fake news impact public policies?: A review of international literature

TL;DR

This review systematically analyzes how disinformation influences public policies across various domains, highlighting its effects on decision-making, public perception, and institutional trust, and emphasizing the need for policy strategies to address this challenge.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive categorization of disinformation impacts on public policy and advocates for integrating disinformation mitigation into policy research agendas.

Findings

Disinformation affects public decisions and policy adherence.

It impacts institutional prestige and public perception.

Disinformation influences health, consumption, and societal dynamics.

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of disinformation on public policies. Using 28 sets of keywords in eight databases, a systematic review was carried out following the Prisma 2020 model (Page et al., 2021). After applying filters and inclusion and exclusion criteria to 4,128 articles and materials found, 46 publications were analyzed, resulting in 23 disinformation impact categories. These categories were organized into two main axes: State and Society and Actors and Dynamics, covering impacts on State actors, society actors, State dynamics and society dynamics. The results indicate that disinformation affects public decisions, adherence to policies, prestige of institutions, perception of reality, consumption, public health and other aspects. Furthermore, this study suggests that disinformation should be treated as a public problem and incorporated into the public policy research agenda, contributing to the development of strategies to mitigate its effects on government actions.