How do people learn about politics when inadvertently exposed to news? Incidental news paradoxical Direct and indirect effects on political knowledge

Highlights：

• Incidental exposure to news is either directly negatively related to political knowledge or yields null effects.

• Yet, a two serial mediation model shows positive associations between incidental exposure to news and political knowledge.

• Incidental exposure relates to thorough news engagement and cognitive elaboration.

• Thorough news engagement and cognitive elaboration, in turn, relate to political learning.

• All mediating mechanisms show a positive and statistically significant effect.