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Misinformation and the Justification of Socially Undesirable Preferences

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  • Flynn, D.J.
  • Krupnikov, Yanna

Abstract

Attempts to correct political misperceptions often fail. The dominant theoretical explanation for this failure comes from psychological research on motivated reasoning. We identify a novel source of motivated reasoning in response to corrective information: the justification of socially undesirable preferences. Further, we demonstrate that this motivation can, under certain conditions, overpower the motivation to maintain congruence. Our empirical test is a national survey experiment that asks participants to reconcile partisan motivations and the motivation to justify voting against a racial minority candidate. Consistent with our argument, racially prejudiced participants dismiss corrections when misinformation is essential to justify voting against a black candidate of their own party, but accept corrections about an otherwise identical candidate of the opposing party. These results provide new insight into the persistence of certain forms of political misinformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Flynn, D.J. & Krupnikov, Yanna, 2019. "Misinformation and the Justification of Socially Undesirable Preferences," Journal of Experimental Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 5-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jexpos:v:6:y:2019:i:01:p:5-16_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Erik Peterson & Shanto Iyengar, 2021. "Partisan Gaps in Political Information and Information‐Seeking Behavior: Motivated Reasoning or Cheerleading?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 133-147, January.
    2. Landgrave, Michelangelo Geovanny, 2023. "The Ethics of Field Experiments in Authoritarian Contexts: A Comment on Cantoni, Yang, Yuchtman and Zhang (2019)," OSF Preprints nvzt8, Center for Open Science.

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