Pennycook, GordonRand, D.G.2021-04-072021Pennycook, Gordon, D.G. Rand. "Examining false beliefs about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Election." The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review 2, no. 1 (2021). DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-51https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37367184The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election saw an unprecedented number of false claims alleging election fraud and arguing that Donald Trump was the actual winner of the election. Here we report a survey exploring belief in these false claims that was conducted three days after Biden was declared the winner. We find that a majority of Trump voters in our sample – particularly those who were more politically knowledgeable and more closely following election news – falsely believed that election fraud was widespread and that Trump won the election. Thus, false beliefs about the election are not merely a fringe phenomenon. We also find that Trump conceding or losing his legal challenges would likely lead a majority of Trump voters to accept Biden’s victory as legitimate, although 40% said they would continue to view Biden as illegitimate regardless. Finally, we found that levels of partisan spite and endorsement of violence were equivalent between Trump and Biden voters.en-USJournal Article2021-04-0710.37016/mr-2020-51