Ugochukwu Etudo, Christopher Whyte, Victoria Yoon, Niam Yaraghi, From Russia with fear: fear appeals and the patterns of cyber-enabled influence operations, Journal of Cybersecurity, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2023, tyad016, https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyad016

This article evaluates the effectiveness of fabricated manipulation versus factual manipulation when it comes to using the cyber world to influence political campaigns. Their hypothesis was to determine if “fake-news” was more effective than truthful campaigns in regard to political influence as well as determine the efficacy of fear-based digital influence campaigns.

This topic is highly integrated into the social sciences because it is reliant on an interdisciplinary study approach. One of the most important principles of social science that this article uses is objectivity. Objectivity is so incredibly important for this specific topic because it discusses how fabricated manipulation of sociopolitical agendas are not as effective as truthful, or factual, manipulation. Their study remained objective throughout their research process so as not to be swayed one way or the other and keep their findings accurate. The researchers also effectively used the social science principle of parsimony. They did use a large amount of technical terminology. However, they did simplify it later on. So, this article appeals to everyone, regardless of their understanding of technical terminology.

The researchers who wrote this article conducted surveys that revolved around the different types of digital tactics and techniques that are used with IO, or influence operations. They also used an empirical testing method that centered on how successful a fear-based approach was when it comes to political persuasion, such as with the Russian interference in 2016. They were able to determine that fear plays a large role in swaying individuals either for or against the source of that fear and that this information is used to attempt to influence political campaigns.

The researchers also used charts to compare and contrast different databases of polls conducted by different organizations in order to determine the effectiveness of their digital influences. They also created empirical models of their information and data that they collected so that they could compile it into graphs and see the trend of the fear-based messages and their effects on how it influenced the political standings it was directed toward.

This article focused on many marginalized groups of people. They conducted research on “racial injustice-related fear appeals” (para. 63) and took into account the different variables that would affect their analysis.  Some examples include, BLM protests, LGBT, police shootings, suspected malware, and the Clinton-Trump spread.

This article also shows us the importance of human factors in their research. Although the fear-based influence for political gain is conducted digitally, it needs to be directed towards actual humans who will interact with that information. They will need to make use of psychology to find the best way to deliver their information in order to be received favorably and influence their political campaign.

This article has an overall benefit to society. This is because it helps to address the use of fear-based digital influence that is not always truthful. The researchers in this article show that fabricated manipulation of information is not always as effective as factual manipulation. This may hopefully help to change the way that political campaigns are conducted and maybe stop the spread of “fake-news” and fear-based information spreading since it is not only ineffective, but also detrimental to society.