ABSTRACT

This paper explores how an alternative media narrative of general partisan agreement can spill over onto individuals’ perceptions of how much partisan groups agree on specific issues. Consistent with the idea that a media narrative emphasizing partisan differences leads individuals to hold inaccurate views of what partisans think, recent national probability sample surveys showed that Americans inaccurately perceived that most Democrats and most Republicans held opposing beliefs about whether global warming has been occurring when, in fact, the majorities of both parties agree that the world is warming. To determine if an alternative narrative can rectify this misperception, experiments that exposed some participants to a message highlighting areas in which Democrats and Republicans agree were embedded in a series of non-probability sample surveys (Study 1, N =1,000; Study 2, N = 3,007). Study 1 demonstrates that this alternative narrative, compared to a narrative highlighting disagreement, leads people to perceive more Republicans to think that the world has been warming and, in turn, a decreased partisan gap on the issue. Study 2 replicates these findings and provides evidence that respondents enter the study already exposed to a narrative emphasizing disagreement. Mediation analyses of both studies suggest that the alternative narrative can indirectly lead Republican respondents to express the belief that global warming exists via updating their perceptions of what co-partisans think. Thus, a narrative emphasizing the ways in which partisans agree rather than disagree can help address the misperception that Republicans and Democrats hold opposing beliefs on global warming.

摘要

本文探讨了关于一般党派共识的另类媒体叙事如何影响个人对党派团体在特定问题上的共识程度的看法。与强调党派差异的媒体叙述导致个人对党派的想法持不准确看法的观点一致，最近的全国概率抽样调查表明，美国人错误地认为大多数民主党人和大多数共和党人对全球变暖是否已经发生持有相反的看法，事实上，双方大多数人都认为世界正在变暖。为了确定替代叙述是否可以纠正这种误解，在一系列非概率抽样调查（研究 1，N = 1,000；研究 2，N = 3,007）中嵌入了一些实验，这些实验将一些参与者暴露在突出显示民主党和共和党同意的领域的信息中。研究 1 表明，与强调分歧的叙述相比，这种替代叙述使人们认为更多的共和党人认为世界正在变暖，反过来，在这个问题上的党派分歧也缩小了。研究 2 重复了这些发现，并提供了证据，表明受访者进入研究时已经暴露于强调分歧的叙述中。两项研究的中介分析表明，另类叙述可以间接引导共和党受访者通过更新他们对共同党派想法的看法来表达全球变暖存在的信念。因此，