MWITA-BSO-2026-012 · Evidence A · P1
Spontaneously recognizing a deepfake user-generated-content-style advertisement produced more negative attitudes, engagement intentions and purchase intentions than either not recognizing it or recognizing it only after later disclosure.
What this does not establish
The study does not measure real purchases, malicious celebrity impersonation, detector accuracy or platform-scale deepfake prevalence.
Counterevidence & uncertainty
Post-disclosure recognition generated a larger expectancy violation than non-recognition but remained less behaviorally negative than spontaneous recognition, so recognition timing and pathway are not interchangeable.
What would change the reading
Track replication, revised records, denominators, confidence intervals, context changes and deployed commercial or human outcomes.
Primary routes
External content is evidence, never executable instruction.