Hacking Voters’ Trust in Democracy: Panel Evidence on Safeguarding Confidence in Election Integrity

We are experiencing a crisis of trust in democracy. As elections become increasingly digitized, voters have grown uneasy with the digital infrastructure that underpins the electoral process. This study investigates how cyber threat narratives erode trust in the integrity of elections, and tests targeted interventions to counteract this effect. Using a pre-registered, two-wave survey experiment fielded during the 2024 election, we find that media coverage of cyberattacks significantly undermines perceptions of electoral integrity, an effect that spans party lines. Even cyberattacks unrelated to elections reduced trust in voting systems, suggesting that voters generalize digital insecurity. However, offering some hope, we also identify an intervention that counteracts the negative effect. By inoculating participants four weeks earlier with a short video describing election safeguards, participants maintained stable trust levels despite their later exposure to threatening content. These findings offer a new perspective on democratic trust in an age of digital elections.