EXAMINING THE ROLE OF POLITICAL DISTRUST ON POLITICALMISINFORMATION IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

Abstract

Distrust in political institutions is a worldwide phenomenon that places a significant burden on democratic governance, contributes to political, ethnic, social, and personal division, and leaves a nation vulnerable to underdevelopment. The pattern is reprehensible in every region of the world. The role of political distrust in the growing political misinformation has not received  much  attention  in the  research  literature,  although  researchers  have  identified several  reasons for  political  misinformation.  The  current  research  investigates  whether political  distrust  can  be  attributed  to  the  proliferation  of  false  information  in  southeast Nigeria. Three hundred and thirteen participants conveniently pooled from different locations in the southeast region of Nigeria, particularly Enugu and Ebonyi, completed a self-report measure of political distrust and misinformation. A linear regression analysis was performed on the data, and the result showed that political misinformation was statistically significantly predicted by political distrust. According to the study's findings, a significant contributory factor in the growing political misinformation could be attributed to political mistrust.