ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how people’s media habits related to their attitudes about electoral integrity going into the 2020 presidential election. Specifically, it builds on work addressing (1) social media news exposure and (2) perceptions of threats to American elections. The data from a survey in the field in October of 2020 reveals how individuals who reported social media was the most common way they received their political news were more likely to anticipate the electoral contest would be contested, to believe Donald Trump would win, and to fear the potential of voter fraud than others in the sample. Social media users, too, were less likely to support election results should Joe Biden beat Trump and were even less interested in voting than individuals with more balanced media diets. The chapter presents these data, showing how social media users may have been predisposed to anticipate—and be open to—Trump’s “Big Lie” that he was victorious in 2020, and advances questions for future research on social media use and perceptions of electoral integrity.
