Perceptions of Knowledge and Misinformation: New Dimensions Within Death Penalty Support Research

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

This presentation uses new data collected from university students to provide insights into how actual or perceived knowledge effects one’s opinion on the death penalty. A comparison will be done between perceived knowledge and actual knowledge related to the death penalty to see if there is consistency in the scores. Consistent results that correlate with appropriately high or low death penalty support scores will lend support to much literature within the area of death penalty support. Inconsistencies will help to shed light on which type of knowledge influences death penalty support more. These inconsistencies may be related to a Dunning-Kruger effect which will be explored as a possible explanation. Additionally, an analysis will be done to determine if being uninformed, as opposed to misinformed, contributes to larger changes in death penalty support after educational stimuli is applied. This will be done by using the response “Don’t Know” to represent uninformed and the incorrect answers to a set of knowledge questions as misinformed. Both of these findings are unrepresented in the literature opening up new avenues for future research with more diverse samples.

Authors

• Wesley McCoy Myers, Florida State University

• Justo Cruz, Florida State University