Is the Political Right More Credulous? Experimental Evidence against Asymmetric Motivations to Believe False Political Information

Recent political events have galvanized interest in the promulgation of misinformation—particularly false rumors about political opponents. An array of studies provide reasons to think that harboring false political beliefs is a disproportionately conservative phenomenon, since citizens with affinit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2021-07, Vol.83 (3), p.1168-1172
Main Authors: Ryan, Timothy J., Aziz, Amanda R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affinity
Beliefs
Citizens
Conspiracy
Elites
False information
Ideology
Information
Left wing politics
Misinformation
Political attitudes
Rumors
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recent political events have galvanized interest in the promulgation of misinformation—particularly false rumors about political opponents. An array of studies provide reasons to think that harboring false political beliefs is a disproportionately conservative phenomenon, since citizens with affinity for the political right endorse more false information than people with affinity for the left. However, as we discuss below, past research is limited in its ability to distinguish supply-side explanations for this result (false information is spread more effectively by elites on the right) from demand-side explanations (citizens who sympathize with the right are more likely to believe false information upon receipt). We conduct an experiment on a representative sample of Americans designed specifically to reveal asymmetries in citizens’ proclivity to endorse false damaging information about political opponents. In a contrast with previous results, we find no evidence that citizens on the political right are especially likely to endorse false political information.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1086/711133