Remembering Political Events Together: Experimental Evidence From the Collaborative Remembering Paradigm

• In Event: Influences on Political Knowledge and Learning

Abstract

People often remember facts and events related to politics with the help of others. Surprisingly, despite the prevalence of collaborative remembering in political life, studies in public opinion and political communication have primarily examined how people remember political facts without the aid of others. In the research reported here, we use the collaborative remembering paradigm from psychology to examine, for the first time, the effects of collaboration on the retrieval of political information from memory. We find that collaborative groups were more likely to remember accurate political information when compared to individuals remembering alone. Our study advances the literature on political knowledge by highlighting attention to a prevalent resource to which individuals often have access too when they attempt to retrieve political information from memory – other individuals.

Authors

• Ryan C. Moore, The Ohio State University

• Jason C. Coronel, The Ohio State U

• Shannon Poulsen, The Ohio State University