Hartman, T.K. and Newmark, A.J. (2012) Motivated reasoning, political sophistication, and associations between President Obama and Islam. PS: Political Science and Politics, 45 (03). 449 - 455. ISSN 1049-0965
Abstract
Recent polls reveal that between 20% and 25% of Americans erroneously indicate that President Obama is a Muslim. In this article, we compare individuals' explicit responses on a survey about religion and politics with reaction time data from an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to investigate whether individuals truly associate Obama with Islam or are motivated reasoners who simply express negativity about the president when given the opportunity. Our results suggest that predispositions such as ideology, partisanship, and race affect how citizens feel about Obama, which in turn motivates them to accept misinformation about the president. We also find that these implicit associations increase the probability of stating that Obama is likely a Muslim. Interestingly, political sophistication does not appear to inoculate citizens from exposure to misinformation, as they exhibit the same IAT effect as less knowledgeable individuals.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © American Political Science Association 2012. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in PS: Political Science & Politics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | President Obama; Motivated reasoning; Political sophistication; Implicit associations |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 26 Jan 2016 18:33 |
Last Modified: | 22 Mar 2018 22:59 |
Published Version: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1049096512000327 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S1049096512000327 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:93385 |