Calls for censorship have been made in response to the proliferation of flat Earth videos on YouTube, but these videos are likely convincing to very few. Instead, people may worry these videos are brainwashing others. That individuals believe other people will be more influenced by media messages than themselves is called third-person perception (TPP), and the consequences from those perceptions, such as calls for censorship, are called third-person effects (TPE). Here, we conduct three studies that examine the flat Earth phenomenon using TPP and TPE as a theoretical framework. We first measured participants’ own perceptions of the convincingness of flat Earth arguments presented in YouTube videos and compared these to participants’ perceptions of how convincing others might find the arguments. Instead of merely looking at ratings of one’s self vs. a general ‘other,’ however, we asked people to consider a variety of identity groups who differ based on political party, religiosity, educational attainment, and area of residence (e.g., rural, urban). We found that participants’ religiosity and political party were the strongest predictors of TPP across the different identity groups. In our second and third pre-registered studies, we found support for our first study’s conclusions, and we found mixed evidence for whether TPP predict support for censoring YouTube among the public.

中文翻译：

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YouTube上的第三人称视角和对平面地球视频的审查呼吁

为了回应YouTube上的“地球”视频激增，人们呼吁进行审查，但这些视频可能令人信服。相反，人们可能会担心这些视频正在洗脑他人。人们认为他人会比自己受到媒体消息的影响更大，这被称为第三人称感知（TPP），而这些感知的后果（如要求审查制度）被称为第三人称效果（TPE）。在这里，我们进行了三项研究，以TPP和TPE为理论框架研究了平坦地球现象。我们首先测量了参与者自己对YouTube视频中提出的关于平地论证的说服力的看法，然后将其与参与者对令人信服的其他人如何找到论点的看法进行了比较。而不是仅仅看一个人的自我vs. 但是，作为一般的“其他”，我们要求人们考虑根据政党，宗教信仰，教育程度和居住地区（例如，农村，城市）不同而不同的身份群体。我们发现，参与者的宗教信仰和政党是不同身份群体中TPP的最强预测因子。在我们的第二次和第三次预注册研究中，我们发现了对第一项研究结论的支持，并且发现了有关TPP是否预测公众对YouTube审查的支持的混合证据。我们发现，参与者的宗教信仰和政党是不同身份群体中TPP的最强预测因子。在我们的第二次和第三次预注册研究中，我们发现了对第一项研究结论的支持，并且发现了有关TPP是否预测公众对YouTube审查的支持的混合证据。我们发现，参与者的宗教信仰和政党是不同身份群体中TPP的最强预测因子。在我们的第二次和第三次预注册研究中，我们发现了对第一项研究结论的支持，并且发现了有关TPP是否预测公众对YouTube审查的支持的混合证据。