More engagement equals more persuasion? How entertainment experiences predict attitudinal effects of satirical news articles

Previous research found that satirical news has mixed effects on attitudes among the public: both large, small, and no effects have been observed. Our research aims to improve our understanding of the explanatory mechanisms behind persuasive effects of satirical news. It tests the prediction that satirical news increases negative attitudes toward satirical targets (e.g., politicians, journalists) through increased hedonic engagement (i.e., enjoyment) and eudaimonic engagement (i.e., appreciation). Two experiments were conducted in which participants were exposed to satirical and regular news articles, one in the United States (Study 1, N = 679) and one in the Netherlands (Study 2, N = 675). Results showed that a satirical news article targeting a company elicited more company distrust than a relevant (but not an irrelevant) regular news article, consistently across countries. Contrary to predictions, the main effects were suppressed rather than explained by higher levels of hedonic engagement with satirical news and were explained by lower instead of higher levels of eudaimonic engagement. Going against earlier findings and based on two different interpretations of the message discounting hypothesis, we explain why our work demonstrates that entertainment experiences can also reduce rather than produce effects of satirical news articles on negative target attitudes.