Abstract
Psychological attachment to political parties can bias people's attitudes, beliefs, and group evaluations. Studies from psychology suggest that self-affirmation theory may ameliorate this problem in the domain of politics on a variety of outcome measures. We report a series of studies conducted by separate research teams that examine whether a self-affirmation intervention affects a variety of outcomes, including political or policy attitudes, factual beliefs, conspiracy beliefs, affective polarization, and evaluations of news sources. The different research teams use a variety of self-affirmation interventions, research designs, and outcomes. Despite these differences, the research teams consistently find that self-affirmation treatments have little effect. These findings suggest considerable caution is warranted for researchers who wish to apply the self-affirmation framework to studies that investigate political attitudes and beliefs. By presenting the "null results" of separate research teams, we hope to spark a discussion about whether and how the self-affirmation paradigm should be applied to political topics.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Journal of Experimental Political Science |
| Vol/bind | 9 |
| Nummer | 2 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 225-240 |
| Antal sider | 16 |
| ISSN | 2052-2630 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 8 feb. 2022 |