Detailed study shows how the right-wingers get dumber the closer they pay attention, whereas left-wingers get smarter the closer they pay attention.
Compounding Effects of News Exposure and Political Positions
Higher levels of exposure to news compound the effect of political positions on the frequency of misperceptions and support for the war. Among those who say they will vote for the President, those with higher exposure to news are more likely to misperceive and to support the war. The opposite is true for those who say they will vote for a Democratic nominee: those with higher exposure to news are less likely to misperceive and to support the war. Higher exposure to news compounds the effect of political positions on the frequency of misperceptions. Taking the average level of the three key misperceptions—evidence that al-Qaeda links have been found, WMD have been found, world public opinion approves of the war—those who say they will vote for Bush and have higher levels of exposure to news are more likely to misperceive. Among Bush supporters who say they follow the news “not at all,” on average, 40% misperceive. This rises to an average of 54% misperceiving among those who follow the news very closely. The opposite dynamic occurs for those who say that they will vote for a Democratic nominee. Among Democratic supporters who do not pay attention at all, an average of 22% misperceive. At higher levels of attention, misperceptions drop, so that among those who follow the news very closely only an average of 11% misperceive.
Looking specifically at the misperception on evidence of links to al Qaeda, among those who favored Bush and did not follow the news closely at all, 57% had this misperception-- rising with each higher level of attention to 74% among those who followed the news closely. Among supporters of the Democratic nominee who did not follow the news very closely, 35% had the misperception, dropping progressively with greater attention to 22% among those in this group who followed the news very closely. The misperception that WMD have been found follows a similar pattern. Among those who favored Bush and did not follow the news closely at all, 29% had this misperception. This rate stayed the same at increasing levels of attention, and then jumped to 44% among those who followed the news very closely. Among supporters of the Democratic nominee that did not follow the news closely at all, 18% had the misperception--dropping progressively to just 4% among those who followed the news very closely. Among Bush supporters who did not follow the news closely at all, 34% believed that world public opinion favored the war--once again staying flat at higher levels of attention and then jumping to 43% at the highest level of attention. Democratic supporters who did not follow the news closely at all had a 14% misperception rate on world public opinion, dropping progressively to 8%.
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