Disinformation is not just about getting a fact wrong. It changes how people see each other, how they relate to their country, and how they understand democracy itself.

This graphic summarizes findings from EKOS Research showing that Canadians who are most exposed to disinformation are far more likely to hold a cluster of reinforcing attitudes. These include distrust of institutions, hostility toward perceived out groups, vaccine hesitancy, climate change denial, and increased sympathy for authoritarian politics at home and abroad. Importantly, these views do not appear in isolation. They tend to rise together, strengthening each other over time.

EKOS finds that these attitudes can be five to fifty times more prevalent among the most disinformed Canadians compared to the best informed. That gap matters. It helps explain growing polarization, declining social cohesion, and why foreign and domestic disinformation campaigns focus less on persuasion and more on erosion. Trust, belonging, and shared reality are the real targets.

Understanding this pattern is essential if Canadians want to respond effectively. The challenge is not simply correcting false claims. It is rebuilding the conditions that allow facts, institutions, and democratic norms to function in the first place.