Mapping the landscape of deepfake research: A systematic review of empirical studies

The emergence of deepfakes has made it increasingly challenging to discern the authenticity of sources and messages. Despite the rapid accumulation of research on deepfakes in recent years, detailed reviews of the existing literature that integrate empirical findings in this area and guide future research are sparse. To address this issue, we conducted a systematic review of 261 quantitative and qualitative studies described in 219 articles on deepfakes across different disciplines. The results showed that most studies have been conducted in Western countries, with relatively little attention given to Asian countries and even less to African countries. Although there was diversity in the methodological approaches, the research on deepfakes found in the sample was still in the early stages of theory building and testing. Furthermore, the examined research focused primarily on the political domain and topics related to deepfake identification and detection. In light of this evidence, we propose an agenda for future research in this interdisciplinary field.