The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes' Steadfast Factual Adherence
The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes' Steadfast Factual Adherence
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DOI：
10.1007/s11109-018-9443-y
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发表时间：
2019-03-01
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Porter, Ethan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Wood, Thomas;Porter, Ethan
公民们能注意到事实信息吗，即使这些信息挑战了他们的党派和意识形态归属？由Nyhan和Reifler描述的逆火效应（Polit Behav 32（2）：303-330。10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2，2010），说不：向被调查者提供事实会加剧他们的无知，而不是简单地忽视事实信息。在他们的研究中，保守派提出了关于伊拉克没有大规模杀伤性武器的事实信息，变得更加相信这种武器已经被发现。本论文介绍了五个实验的结果，其中我们招募了10,100多名受试者，并测试了52个潜在的回火问题。在所有的实验中，我们发现没有能够触发回火的校正，尽管精确地测试了应该预期回火的极化问题。事实上，事与愿违的证据远比先前的研究所表明的要脆弱得多。总的来说，公民关注事实信息，即使这些信息挑战了他们的意识形态承诺。
Can citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their partisan and ideological attachments? The backfire effect, described by Nyhan and Reifler (Polit Behav 32(2):303-330. 10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2, 2010), says no: rather than simply ignoring factual information, presenting respondents with facts can compound their ignorance. In their study, conservatives presented with factual information about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq became more convinced that such weapons had been found. The present paper presents results from five experiments in which we enrolled more than 10,100 subjects and tested 52 issues of potential backfire. Across all experiments, we found no corrections capable of triggering backfire, despite testing precisely the kinds of polarized issues where backfire should be expected. Evidence of factual backfire is far more tenuous than prior research suggests. By and large, citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their ideological commitments.