The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions
The spread of COVID-19 misinformation highlights the need to correct misperceptions about health and science. Research on climate change suggests that informing people about a scientific consensus can reduce misinformation endorsement, but these studies often fail to isolate the effects of consensus...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Research & Politics |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211014980 |
| _version_ | 1819139825190567936 |
|---|---|
| author | Vignesh Chockalingam Victor Wu Nicolas Berlinski Zoe Chandra Amy Hu Erik Jones Justin Kramer Xiaoqiu Steven Li Thomas Monfre Yong Sheng Ng Madeleine Sach Maria Smith-Lopez Sarah Solomon Andrew Sosanya Brendan Nyhan |
| author_facet | Vignesh Chockalingam Victor Wu Nicolas Berlinski Zoe Chandra Amy Hu Erik Jones Justin Kramer Xiaoqiu Steven Li Thomas Monfre Yong Sheng Ng Madeleine Sach Maria Smith-Lopez Sarah Solomon Andrew Sosanya Brendan Nyhan |
| author_sort | Vignesh Chockalingam |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The spread of COVID-19 misinformation highlights the need to correct misperceptions about health and science. Research on climate change suggests that informing people about a scientific consensus can reduce misinformation endorsement, but these studies often fail to isolate the effects of consensus messaging and may not translate to other issues. We therefore conduct a survey experiment comparing standard corrections with those citing a scientific consensus for three issues: COVID-19 threat, climate change threat, and vaccine efficacy. We find that consensus corrections are never more effective than standard corrections at countering misperceptions and generally fail to reduce them with only one exception. We also find that consensus corrections endorsed by co-partisans do not reduce misperceptions relative to standard corrections, while those endorsed by opposition partisans are viewed as less credible and can potentially even provoke a backfire effect. These results indicate that corrections citing a scientific consensus, including corrective messages from partisans, are less effective than previous research suggests when compared with appropriate baseline messages. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:28:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e79328c673bc4460895d187e6605807b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-1680 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:28:49Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Research & Politics |
| spelling | doaj.art-e79328c673bc4460895d187e6605807b2022-12-21T18:27:41ZengSAGE PublishingResearch & Politics2053-16802021-05-01810.1177/20531680211014980The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptionsVignesh ChockalingamVictor WuNicolas BerlinskiZoe ChandraAmy HuErik JonesJustin KramerXiaoqiu Steven LiThomas MonfreYong Sheng NgMadeleine SachMaria Smith-LopezSarah SolomonAndrew SosanyaBrendan NyhanThe spread of COVID-19 misinformation highlights the need to correct misperceptions about health and science. Research on climate change suggests that informing people about a scientific consensus can reduce misinformation endorsement, but these studies often fail to isolate the effects of consensus messaging and may not translate to other issues. We therefore conduct a survey experiment comparing standard corrections with those citing a scientific consensus for three issues: COVID-19 threat, climate change threat, and vaccine efficacy. We find that consensus corrections are never more effective than standard corrections at countering misperceptions and generally fail to reduce them with only one exception. We also find that consensus corrections endorsed by co-partisans do not reduce misperceptions relative to standard corrections, while those endorsed by opposition partisans are viewed as less credible and can potentially even provoke a backfire effect. These results indicate that corrections citing a scientific consensus, including corrective messages from partisans, are less effective than previous research suggests when compared with appropriate baseline messages.https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211014980 |
| spellingShingle | Vignesh Chockalingam Victor Wu Nicolas Berlinski Zoe Chandra Amy Hu Erik Jones Justin Kramer Xiaoqiu Steven Li Thomas Monfre Yong Sheng Ng Madeleine Sach Maria Smith-Lopez Sarah Solomon Andrew Sosanya Brendan Nyhan The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions Research & Politics |
| title | The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions |
| title_full | The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions |
| title_fullStr | The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions |
| title_full_unstemmed | The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions |
| title_short | The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions |
| title_sort | limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211014980 |
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