Inferential Spillover: Measuring the Political Causes of Factual Resistance

• In Event: Information and Political Attitudes

Abstract

Extant experiments on factual corrections have resulted in divided results -- a large literature shows effective corrections, while a smaller literature shows that corrections are inclined to entrench misperceptions. We seek to resolve this distiction by experimentally manipulating the extent to which a factual correction is thought to implicate a political consequence, a property we call "inferential spillover." In certain experimental conditions, we hypothesize that subjects react negatively to attempted policy conclusions, and it's this policy reactance which occasionally negatively affects factual updating. This finding has broad implications for the study of factual interventions and psychological reactance.

Authors

• Thomas Wood, The Ohio State University

• Yamil Velez, Columbia University

• Ethan Porter, George Washington University