Synthetic media, political disinformation, and the erosion of public trust: a systematic review and synthetic epistemic destabilization model

Introduction AI-generated synthetic media pose structural challenges to democratic communication and institutional trust. Methods Systematic review of 74 empirical studies (2018–2025) following SWiM guidelines, with vote-counting across four outcome domains. Results Synthetic media primarily induce epistemic uncertainty and a “skepticism tax” rather than universal persuasion. Effects are moderated by community structure, incivility, polarization, and platform architecture. Discussion The Synthetic Epistemic Destabilization Model (SEDM) integrates these findings into a six-stage process model, identifying boundary conditions and circuit breakers for trust erosion.