ABSTRACT

YouTube has been influential in propagating Flat Earth Ideology, but not everyone is equally susceptible to the effects of watching these videos. In an experiment with a participant pool restricted to regular YouTube users, we found that lower science intelligence and higher conspiracy mentality increase individuals’ susceptibility to flat Earth arguments on YouTube. In fact, these two dispositional variables interact: whereas people with lower conspiracy mentality do not find the arguments compelling at any level of science intelligence, among those with higher conspiracy mentality, perception of argument strength decreases as science intelligence increases. Moreover, perceptions of argument strength varied on the thrust of the clip’s argument (science-, conspiracy-, or religious-based), with the religious appeal being perceived as weaker and inspiring more counterarguing than the science clip. We discuss implications for both the knowledge deficit hypothesis and for the differential susceptibility to media effects model.

抽象的

YouTube在传播“平地思想”方面具有影响力，但并非每个人都同样容易受到观看这些视频的影响。在一个仅限普通YouTube用户使用的参与者群体的实验中，我们发现较低的科学知识和较高的阴谋心态会增加个人对YouTube上的地球论争的敏感性。实际上，这两个倾向变量是相互影响的：虽然阴谋心态较低的人在科学智力的任何水平上都找不到引人注目的论点，但在阴谋心态较高的人中，论点强度的感知随着科学智力的提高而降低。此外，对论点力量的理解随剪辑论点（科学，阴谋或宗教信仰）的推论而变化，宗教吸引力被认为比科学剪辑更弱，并且激发了更多反驳。我们讨论了知识赤字假说和对媒介效应模型的易感性的影响。