Honors Theses
Date of Award
4-2021
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Robert Brown
Second Advisor
Conor Dowling
Third Advisor
Miles Armaly
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Political misinformation and threats to democratic norms are major problems for American democracy. This thesis examines belief in misinformation about democratic norms and the efficacy of corrective information (fact-checking) in multiple circumstances, specifically analyzing the effects of emotions, partisan cues, and conspiracy thinking on the efficacy of the corrective information. To measure these effects, a survey of 45 questions was fielded through Lucid. Approximately 2000 respondents answered questions about their demographics, political beliefs/participation, and media habits. These respondents were subsequently randomly sorted into 1 of 8 experimental groups and received an emotional priming activity and a simulated news article containing misinformation about democratic norms. The political attribution and presence of fact checking varied based on the experimental group. The results of this survey found that corrective information is effective at reducing belief in misinformation across a variety of circumstances; the effectiveness was not significantly affected by the experimental treatments. The results also showed that conspiracy thinking is positively correlated with increased belief in misinformation, which is particularly impactful as approximately 70% of the respondents displayed a tendency towards conspiracy thinking.
Recommended Citation
James, Julia Ruth, "Partisan Cues, Emotion, and the Efficacy of Corrections to Misinformation About Democratic Norms" (2021). Honors Theses. 1662.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1662
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