Do Perceptions of Media Impact Lead to Action or the Other Way Around? An Experimental Investigation of the Influence of Presumed Media Influence

• In Event: Theoretical and Conceptual Issues in Mass Communication

Abstract

According to the influence of presumed media influence hypothesis, people estimate the potential effects of media on other people and change their attitudes or behavior as a consequence. The current research examined the causal direction in the influence of presumed media influence using two experimens. Taken together, results supported the causal direction postulated by the "presumed influence" hypothesis.

Authors

• Nurit Tal Or, University of Haifa

• Jonathan Cohen, Univ of Haifa

• Yariv Tsfati, Univ of Haifa

• Albert Gunther, University of Wisconsin, Madison