Does Science Fiction Affect Political Fact? Yes and No: A Survey Experiment on “Killer Robots”
Does Science Fiction Affect Political Fact? Yes and No: A Survey Experiment on “Killer Robots”
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科幻小说会影响政治事实吗？是与否：关于“杀手机器人”的调查实验
DOI：
10.1093/isq/sqy028
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发表时间：
2018
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
C. Carpenter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kevin A. Young;C. Carpenter
一些学者认为，流行文化会以影响现实世界政治结果的方式塑造公众对外交政策的态度，但相对较少的研究验证了这一命题。我们通过一项关于美国人对完全自主武器态度的调查实验，研究流行文化是否——更重要的是如何——影响公众对外交政策的看法。在回答有关自主武器的问题之前或之后，我们询问了受访者对流行文化的消费情况，包括一些以武装人工智能（AI）为主题的标志性科幻电影。我们发现，科幻小说的“启动效应”对政治态度没有独立的影响，将自主武器称为“杀手机器人”也没有独立的影响。然而，观看可怕的武装人工智能电影的人对自主武器的反对程度更高。这种“科幻素养”效应在那些最喜欢科幻小说的人身上会增强，如果他们在报告自己的态度之前就对流行文化有了“初步了解”——我们称之为“科幻极客效应”。我们的项目促进了目前对流行文化如何影响公众对外交政策的看法的理解，并为进一步研究提供了途径。
Some scholars suggest popular culture shapes public attitudes about foreign policy in ways that can affect real-world political outcomes, but relatively few studies test this proposition. We examine whether—and more importantly how—popular culture affects public opinion on foreign policy through a survey experiment on American attitudes toward fully autonomous weapons. We queried respondents about their consumption of popular culture—including a number of iconic science-fiction films featuring armed artificial intelligence (AI)—before or after questions about autonomous weapons. We find that science fiction “priming” exerts no independent effect on political attitudes, nor does referring to autonomous weapons as “killer robots.” However, consumption of frightening armed AI films is associated with greater opposition to autonomous weapons. This “sci-fi literacy” effect increases for the highest consumers of science fiction if they are “primed” about popular culture before reporting their attitudes—what we call the “sci-fi geek effect.” Our project advances current understanding of how popular culture affects public opinion on foreign policy and suggests avenues for further inquiry.