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Online astroturfing is a communicative strategy that uses websites, \u201csock puppets,\u201d or social bots to create the false impression that a particular opinion has widespread public support. We exposed N\u2009=\u20092353 subjects to pro-Russian astroturfing comments and tested: (1) their effects on political opinions and opinion certainty and (2) the efficiency of three inoculation strategies to prevent these effects. All effects were investigated across three issues and from a short- and long-term perspective. Results show that astroturfing comments can indeed alter recipients\u2019 opinions, and increase uncertainty, even when subjects are inoculated before exposure. We found exclusively short-term effects of only one inoculation strategy (refutational-same). As these findings imply, preemptive media literacy campaigns should deploy (1) continuous rather than one-time efforts and (2) issue specific rather than abstract inoculation messages.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444820908530","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,4]],"date-time":"2020-03-04T04:29:48Z","timestamp":1583296188000},"page":"1080-1098","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":84,"title":["The disconcerting potential of online disinformation: Persuasive effects of astroturfing comments and three strategies for inoculation against them"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2899-396X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Zerback","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Florian","family":"T\u00f6pfl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Free University of Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Kn\u00f6pfle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1461444820908530","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/hcre.12000"},{"key":"bibr2-1461444820908530","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/03637751003758193"},{"key":"bibr3-1461444820908530","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0267323118760317"},{"key":"bibr4-1461444820908530","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bessi A, Ferrara E (2016) Social bots distort the 2016 US presidential election online discussion. 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