When Corrections Fail: The persistence of political misperceptions
نویسندگان
چکیده
An extensive literature addresses citizen ignorance, but very little research focuses on misperceptions. Can these false or unsubstantiated beliefs about politics be corrected? Previous studies have not tested the efficacy of corrections in a realistic format. We conducted four experiments in which subjects read mock news articles that included either a misleading claim from a politician, or a misleading claim and a correction. Results indicate that corrections frequently fail to reduce misperceptions among the targeted ideological group. We also document several instances of a “backfire” effect in which corrections actually increase misperceptions among the group in question.
منابع مشابه
Emotions, Partisanship, and Misperceptions: How Anger and Anxiety Moderate the Effect of Partisan Bias on Susceptibility to Political Misinformation
Citizens are frequently misinformed about political issues and candidates but the circumstances under which inaccurate beliefs emerge are not fully understood. This experimental study demonstrates that the independent experience of two emotions, anger and anxiety, in part determines whether citizens consider misinformation in a partisan or open-minded fashion. Anger encourages partisan, motivat...
متن کاملUnderstanding and countering misperceptions in politics and health care
Misperceptions about politics and health can undermine public debate and distort people’s choices and behavior. Why do people hold these false or unsupported beliefs and why is it so difficult to change their minds? An emerging literature examines the difficulty of correcting false or unsupported beliefs and the reasons for this resistance, but relatively little is known about the sources of mi...
متن کاملThe Nature and Origins of Misperceptions: Understanding False and Unsupported Beliefs about Politics
Political misperceptions can distort public debate and undermine people’s ability to form meaningful opinions. Why do people often hold these false or unsupported beliefs and why is it sometimes so difficult to convince them otherwise? We argue that political misperceptions are typically rooted in directionally motivated reasoning, which limits the effectiveness of corrective information about ...
متن کاملThe factors influencing the immune response to hepatitis B vaccine and persistence of the protection.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and its sequelae which include cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma is a major public health problem throught the world.The WHO strategy for effective control of HBV infection is vaccination with the surface antigen of virus(HBsAg).The results obtained from a large number of studies demonstrated that the vaccine induces a protective antibody resonse (anti-HB...
متن کاملMisinformed About the Affordable Care Act? Leveraging Certainty to Assess the Prevalence of Misperceptions
According to some recent research, Americans hold a great deal of misinformation about important political issues. However, such investigations treat incorrect answers to quiz questions measuring knowledge as evidence of misinformation. This study instead defines misperceptions as incorrect answers that respondents are confident are correct. Two surveys of representative samples of American adu...
متن کامل