More Accurate, but No Less Polarized: Comparing the Factual Beliefs of Government Officials and the Public
dc.contributor.author | Lee, N | |
dc.contributor.author | Nyhan, B | |
dc.contributor.author | Reifler, J | |
dc.contributor.author | Flynn, DJ | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-02-18T12:56:16Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-11-24 | |
dc.description.abstract | Studies of the American public demonstrate that partisans often diverge not only on questions of opinion but also on matters of fact. However, little is known about partisan divergence in factual beliefs among the government officials who make real policy decisions, or how it compares to belief polarization among the public. This letter describes the first systematic comparison of factual belief polarization between the public and government officials, which we conducted using a paired survey approach. The results indicate that political elites are consistently more accurately informed than the public across a wide range of politically contentious facts. However, this increase in accuracy does not translate into reduced factual belief polarization. These findings demonstrate that a more informed political elite does not necessarily mitigate partisan factual disagreement in policy making. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | European Union Horizon 2020 | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Stanford University, Laboratory for the Study of American Values | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Published online 24 November 2020 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1017/S000712342000037X | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 682758 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/124799 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) | en_GB |
dc.relation.url | https://dataverse.harvard.ed/atavers/JPolS | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en_GB |
dc.subject | belief polarization | en_GB |
dc.subject | misperceptions | en_GB |
dc.subject | elite opinion | en_GB |
dc.title | More Accurate, but No Less Polarized: Comparing the Factual Beliefs of Government Officials and the Public | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2021-02-18T12:56:16Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0007-1234 | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record | en_GB |
dc.description | Data availability statement: Data replication sets are available at https://dataverse.harvard.ed/atavers/JPolS | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | British Journal of Political Science | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2020-06-23 | |
exeter.funder | ::European Commission | en_GB |
rioxxterms.version | AM | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2020-11-24 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2021-02-18T12:54:13Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2021-02-18T12:56:27Z | |
refterms.panel | C | en_GB |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/