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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18.0pt">The Institute for Analytical Sociology Seminar</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:SV"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Pa8" align="center" style="margin-bottom:1.0pt;text-align:center"><span class="A8"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Venue: KO301 (3rd floor)</span></span><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">,
<span class="A6"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Kopparhammaren 2, Norra Grytsgatan 10, Norrköping
</span></span></span><span class="A6"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="A6"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Pa8" align="center" style="margin-bottom:1.0pt;text-align:center"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Thursday January 30 @ 11:00</span><u><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="Pa8" align="center" style="margin-bottom:1.0pt;text-align:center"><span lang="EN-US">__________________________________________________</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:SV"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:SV">Using experiments and automated text analysis to study the mechanism of backfire effects in correcting misperceptions<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:SV"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:SV">Friedolin Merhout<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:SV">Duke University<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span lang="HU" style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmail-il"><b><span lang="EN-US">Abstract</span></b></span><span lang="EN-US">: <br>
The unexpected election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the role attributed to purposefully fabricated news reports has turned the public spotlight on the spread of misinformation and the correction of factually inaccurate beliefs. The scholarly literature studying
such misperceptions dates back to the Cold War and has repeatedly demonstrated the steadfastness of beliefs in the face of disconfirming evidence. Beyond belief persistence, recent scholarship suggests that efforts at correcting factually incorrect beliefs
can prompt even more vigorous endorsement of these beliefs, leading to so-called ``backfire effects’’. While the prevalence of these backfire effects is being hotly debated, their existence poses an obvious challenge to the functioning of democratic institutions
and decision-making processes. To gauge the severity of this challenge, it is essential to understand the mechanism(s) underlying these effects as well as the scope conditions under which they occur. In this talk, I leverage theories from social psychology
to contribute to the understanding of both of these issues. Specifically, I first draw on cognitive dissonance theory to argue that the degree of perceived choice individuals have about encountering disconfirming, corrective information moderates the relationship
between exposure to such information and the whether they correct their beliefs or not. Second, I provide a test of whether ``counter-arguing’’ can explain when correcting information lead to more incorrect beliefs. Evidence from an online experiment suggests
that when individuals choose between and read one of multiple news articles, such correcting information more consistently lead to corrected beliefs than when they are asked to read one specific article. Conversely, when individuals are prompted to reflect
on and engage with an article with information disconfirming an ideologically-aligned misperception, they are prone to experience backfire effects, suggesting that counter-arguing is one mechanism through which such effects operate. To probe the counter-arguing
mechanism further, I apply a set of automated text analysis methods to the reflection responses.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-language:SV">The seminar is open for everyone. Coffee and tea is provided.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-language:SV">Best regards<br>
Madelene Töpfer<br>
Administrator<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:SV"><img width="170" height="44" style="width:1.7708in;height:.4583in" id="_x0000_i1025" src="https://liu.se/mallar/signatur/liu_signatur_en.png" alt="Linköping University"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:SV">Institute for Analytical Sociology</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:SV"><br>
S-601 74 Norrköping<br>
Phone: +46 (0)11-36 32 91<br>
Mobile: +46 (0)700 89 66 97<br>
Visiting address: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-language:SV">Kopparhammaren 7, Kungsgatan 56D, Campus Norrköping</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:SV">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:SV">Please visit us at
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:SV"><a href="https://liu.se/" title="liu.se"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black;text-decoration:none">liu.se</span></a>
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:SV"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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