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crazytoms2000 OP t1_iymj5tm wrote

Reply to comment by -domi- in The Impact of Political Memes: a Longitudinal Field Experiment. The study finds that political memes have limited persuasion and polarization effects. They mostly contribute to attitude entrenchment among strong party identifiers. by crazytoms2000

Hi, I am the author of the article.

In this experiment, memes had no direct persuasion (e.g. people who were assigned to the left-wing memes condition didn't become more left-wing, and people assigned to the right-wing meme condition did not become more right-wing compared to the control group) nor did it have a direct polarization effect. However, I observe a polarization effect among individuals who feel close or fairly close to a political party and who were assigned to a treatment group that was incongruent with their prior beliefs (e.g. someone who is left-wing assigned to the right-wing treatment group). This suggest motivated reasoning in order to protect important prior beliefs.

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Happy to answer any other questions :)

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-domi- t1_iynlz9c wrote

So, ironically, seeing both left- and right-wing memes will likely push someone father in the direction they normally lean, than just seeing the memes from the side they agree with? That's nuts.

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crazytoms2000 OP t1_iyny33i wrote

Only if they feel close or fairly close to a political party. These individuals could be motivated more than others to protect their political beliefs when they see incongruent information.

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