The DOI matches its Crossref record; 16 of the 16 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Motivated Reasoning and Public Opinion Perception
Abstract
Theorists posit that a public—unlike a mass of individuals—forms opinions through awareness of multiple viewpoints and recognition of opposition in a polity. Whether individuals pursue information on others’ political preferences is another matter. While some are motivated to seek as much information as possible, others seek information that supports their own preference. This differential pattern of awareness has implications for individuals’ assessment of collective preferences. This article extends recent research on motivated reasoning to test whether accuracy goals (i.e., reaching correct conclusions) and directional goals (i.e., reaching preferred conclusions) affect perceptions of majority preferences. Results show that motivated reasoning affects overestimates of support, of both national-level opinion and modal opinion in discussion groups, even after controlling for partisan strength, demographics, news exposure, political knowledge, and interest. Implications for considered public opinion are discussed in the conclusion.
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Cites
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Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs
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The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes
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Cited by
How Elite Partisan Polarization Affects Public Opinion Formation
DRUCKMAN, J. N., PETERSON, E., & SLOTHUUS, R. (2013) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055412000500 · Cited by 1,569
Political Parties, Motivated Reasoning, and Public Opinion Formation
Leeper, T. J., & Slothuus, R. (2014) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12164 · Cited by 722
Conspiracy Endorsement as Motivated Reasoning: The Moderating Roles of Political Knowledge and Trust
Miller, J. M., Saunders, K. L., & Farhart, C. E. (2016) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12234 · Cited by 706
Fact-checking: a meta-analysis of what works and for whom
Walter, N., Cohen, J., Holbert, R. L., & Morag, Y. (2020) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2019.1668894 · Cited by 690
Prior, M., Sood, G., & Khanna, K. (2015) · Quarterly Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1561/100.00014127 · Cited by 418
Metadata
- Authors
- Nir, L.
- Venue
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 504-532
- ISSN
- 0033-362X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5331
- OpenAlex
- W2158686665
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 16
- FWCI
- 57.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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