Correcting Historical Misinformation: A Survey Experiment in the Philippines

• In Event: Varieties and Challenges in Political Participation in an Age of Misinformation

Abstract

Democratic backsliding in recent years has seen several politicians and their supporters spread historical misinformation, fostering nostalgia for an imagined past at odds with empirical reality. This paper addresses three questions: 1) can such historical misperceptions be corrected? 2) do such corrections shape respondent beliefs about contemporary politics? and 3) is the pervasiveness of such historical misperceptions greater within the general population if the candidate promoting them gains office? To answer these questions, we focus on the Philippines, where President Bongbong Marcos and his supporters have spread false claims that the authoritarian regime of his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was the “golden age” of the Philippine economy. We use data from eight rounds of nationally representative face-to-face surveys before and after Bonbong’s election. Two survey experiments designed to counter misinformation about the past minimally lowered perceptions of the economy under Marcos Sr. but did not change perceptions of the former President or his son. Strikingly, historical misperceptions appear to have become more pervasive since the election of Bongbong Marcos.

Authors

• Dean Dulay, Singapore Management University

• Allen D. Hicken, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Anil Menon, University of California, Merced