ABSTRACT
Although studies of political satire and humor demonstrate relevant effects on certain political attitudes in Western nations—some leading to the empowerment of audiences and others to depoliticizing them—it is not clear that such a thing occurs in the Mexican context. Therefore, we present empirical evidence of the effects of exposure to satire on the most relevant political attitudes, such as political conversation, political interest, internal political efficacy, institutional trust, cynicism and political knowledge, taking data from national surveys of 2018 and 2021. We find there is a relevant and consistent effect in the first three variables and marginal and inconsistent increases in the last three. This increase is significant for depoliticized audiences such as those that consume satire, that the absence of negative effects is significant and that the fact that satire has slightly greater effects than television news on these attitudes gives it a relevant place in the media diet of the Mexican voter.
