Effects of exposure to political content on subjective wellbeing

Consumption of news, particularly negative news, is correlated with poorer mental health outcomes (de Hoog and Verboon 2019; Hwang et al. 2021; Kesner et al. 2025; McNaughton-Cassill 2001; Pfefferbaum et al. 2021). While (to our knowledge) no studies investigate the effects of standard inoculation interventions against misinformation and mental health outcomes, we argue that a similar negative effect on subjective wellbeing should be observed because those interventions emphasise maliciousness, bad actors, and overall dangers in the information environment. These interventions have been shown to be effective at improving individuals’ ability to identify misinformation (Carnahan et al. 2021; Chan et al. 2017; Guess et al. 2020; Hameleers 2020; Martel and Rand 2024; Walter et al. 2020; Wood and Porter 2019), and if they are to become implemented at scale, examining potential risks to individual wellbeing should also be considered. In this study, we investigate the effect of exposure to news, exposure to fact-checks, and exposure to digital literacy tips on individuals’ subjective wellbeing. We conduct a 2-wave panel survey in Spain, and following wave 1, participants are randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups (in addition to a control group). For four weeks, we ask participants to visit one of three websites, managed by the researchers: the first exposing them to news from reputable outlets, the second to digital literacy tips, and the third to fact-checked information. We partner with the main news organisations (El Mundo and El Pais), fact-checking (Maldita), and digital literacy (LearnToCheck) organisations in Spain to expose participants to realistic interventions. Following the intervention, we predict participants’ subjective wellbeing as a function of exposure to the treatment.