Misled from Within: How Perceived Exposure Moderates the Link between Disinformation Beliefs and Fake News Origin Attributions in a Polarized Media System

Robustness check of the following paper: Disinformation is widely studied, yet citizens’ origin attributions for fake news—especially whether they blame domestic or foreign distributors—remain underexplored. We test whether (1) media-disinformation beliefs and (2) the perceived cultivation of fake news predict evaluations of false stories and their origin attributions. Given the reciprocal links between polarized media–political systems and disinformation, we focus on Hungary as a highly polarized context. Using a quota-based survey of Hungarian adults from November 2025 (N = 1,006), we estimate regression models that include an interaction between perceived exposure to fake news and beliefs that news media intentionally disseminate disinformation. Stronger media-disinformation beliefs are associated with attributing fake news more to domestic than to foreign sources. Consistent with cultivation theory, higher perceived exposure strengthens this association. Additional analyses show that both perceived exposure and media-disinformation beliefs are linked to greater certainty in judgments about fake news’ origins.