The Elusive Backfire Effect Mass Attitudes’ Steadfast Factual Adherence

• Published in: Political behavior Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 135 - 163
• Main Authors: Wood, Thomas, Porter, Ethan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer Science + Business Media 01.03.2019; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attitudes; Citizens; Conservatism; Experiments; Ignorance; ORIGINAL PAPER; Partisanship; Political behavior; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Public opinion; Respondents; Sociology; Weapons of mass destruction; Factual correction; Factual information; Misinformation; Backfire effect

Can citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their partisan and ideological attachments? The “backfire effect,” described by Nyhan and Reifler (Polit Behav 32(2):303–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2, 2010), says no: rather than simply ignoring factual in...