Citizen Beliefs About Media Bias in the United States
Download data and study materials from OSF
Principal investigators:
Seth J. Hill
University of California, San Diego
Email: sjhill@ucsd.edu
Homepage:
https://www.sethjhill.com/
Margaret E. Roberts
University of California, San Diego
Email: meroberts@ucsd.edu
Homepage:
https://polisci.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/faculty-directory/currently-active-faculty/roberts-profile.html
Sample size: 2016
Field period: 07/07/2017-03/27/2018
Hypotheses
1. How much do citizens learn about politically-relevant facts from the headlines of different news sources?
2. Do citizens discount headlines from some news sources more than others?
3. If they discount, does this vary with partisanship?
Experimental Manipulations
1. Order of politically-relevant facts presented.
2. Headlines relevant to each fact.
3. Whether news source that produced headline provided.
Outcomes
Probabilistic belief that statement of fact true.
Summary of Results
1. Headlines estimated to have likelihood ratios with respect to statements of fact between 1.2 and 1.6, suggesting pretty informative.
2. Some discounting of sources, but limited.
3. Limited heterogeneity by partisanship.