Rumors and Health Care Reform: Experiments in Political Misinformation
Rumors and Health Care Reform: Experiments in Political Misinformation
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DOI：
10.1017/s0007123415000186
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发表时间：
2017-04-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Berinsky, Adam J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Berinsky, Adam J.
本文探讨了人们对围绕 2010 年国会颁布的医疗改革的政治谣言的信念。在某些情况下，用来源不明的声明来反驳谣言可以提高公民拒绝谣言的意愿，而不管他们自己的政治倾向如何。这种来源可信度效应虽然在政治说服文献中众所周知，但尚未应用于谣言的研究。尽管消息来源可信度似乎是揭穿政治谣言的有效工具，但风险仍然存在。本文借鉴心理学对“流畅性”（信息回忆的容易程度）的研究，认为谣言通过熟悉度获得力量。试图通过直接反驳来平息谣言可能会通过提高流畅度来促进谣言的传播。实证结果发现，仅仅重复谣言就会增加其力量。
This article explores belief in political rumors surrounding the health care reforms enacted by Congress in 2010. Refuting rumors with statements from unlikely sources can, under certain circumstances, increase the willingness of citizens to reject rumors regardless of their own political predilections. Such source credibility effects, while well known in the political persuasion literature, have not been applied to the study of rumor. Though source credibility appears to be an effective tool for debunking political rumors, risks remain. Drawing upon research from psychology on 'fluency' - the ease of information recall - this article argues that rumors acquire power through familiarity. Attempting to quash rumors through direct refutation may facilitate their diffusion by increasing fluency. The empirical results find that merely repeating a rumor increases its power.