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Does Counter-Attitudinal Information Cause Backlash? Results from Three Large Survey Experiments

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  • Guess, Andrew
  • Coppock, Alexander

Abstract

Several theoretical perspectives suggest that when individuals are exposed to counter-attitudinal evidence or arguments, their pre-existing opinions and beliefs are reinforced, resulting in a phenomenon sometimes known as ‘backlash’. This article formalizes the concept of backlash and specifies how it can be measured. It then presents the results from three survey experiments – two on Mechanical Turk and one on a nationally representative sample – that find no evidence of backlash, even under theoretically favorable conditions. While a casual reading of the literature on information processing suggests that backlash is rampant, these results indicate that it is much rarer than commonly supposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Guess, Andrew & Coppock, Alexander, 2020. "Does Counter-Attitudinal Information Cause Backlash? Results from Three Large Survey Experiments," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 1497-1515, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:50:y:2020:i:4:p:1497-1515_15
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Tesei & Filipe Campante & Ruben Durante, 2022. "Media and Social Capital," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 69-91, August.
    2. Eric Groenendyk & Yanna Krupnikov, 2021. "What Motivates Reasoning? A Theory of Goal‐Dependent Political Evaluation," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 180-196, January.
    3. Herbert S. Lin, 2024. "Towards implementation of warrant-based content self-moderation," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 34(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Jens Eger & Sebastian H. Schneider & Martin Bruder & Solveig H. Gleser, 2023. "Does Evidence Matter? The Impact of Evidence Regarding Aid Effectiveness on Attitudes Towards Aid," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(5), pages 1149-1172, October.
    5. Dolan, Lindsay & Kubinec, Robert & Nielson, Daniel & Zhang, Jack, 2021. "A Field Experiment on Business Opposition to the U.S.-China Trade War," SocArXiv 435u9, Center for Open Science.
    6. Gautam Nair & Kyle Peyton, 2022. "Building Mass Support for Global Pandemic Recovery Efforts in the United States," CID Working Papers 408, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    7. Raymond M Duch & Adrian Barnett & Maciej Filipek & Javier Espinosa-Brito & Laurence S J Roope & Mara Violato & Philip M Clarke, 2023. "Cash versus lottery video messages: online COVID-19 vaccine incentives experiment," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 2, pages 9-8.
    8. Ben M. Tappin & Adam J. Berinsky & David G. Rand, 2023. "Partisans’ receptivity to persuasive messaging is undiminished by countervailing party leader cues," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(4), pages 568-582, April.
    9. Robin Bayes, 2022. "Moral Convictions and Threats to Science," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 86-96, March.
    10. Byunghwan Son, 2024. "Foreign pop-culture and backlash: the case of non-fan K-pop Subreddits during the pandemic," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(1), pages 117-143, March.
    11. Alrababah, Ala & Casalis, Marine & Masterson, Daniel & Hangartner, Dominik & Wehrli, & Weinstein, Jeremy, 2023. "Reducing Attrition in Phone-based Panel Surveys: A Web Application to Facilitate Best Practices and Semi-Automate Survey Workflow," OSF Preprints gyz3h, Center for Open Science.

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