False beliefs and confabulation can lead to lasting changes in political attitudes

Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
Thomas StrandbergPhilip Pärnamets

Abstract

In times of increasing polarization and political acrimony, fueled by distrust of government and media disinformation, it is ever more important to understand the cognitive mechanisms behind political attitude change. In two experiments, we present evidence that false beliefs about one's own prior attitudes and confabulatory reasoning can lead to lasting changes in political attitudes. In Experiment 1 (N = 140), participants stated their opinions about salient political issues, and using the Choice Blindness Paradigm we covertly altered some of their responses to indicate an opposite position. In the first condition, we asked the participants to immediately verify the manipulated responses, and in the second, we also asked them to provide underlying arguments behind their attitudes. Only half of the manipulations were corrected by the participants. To measure lasting attitude change, we asked the participants to rate the same issues again later in the experiment, as well as one week after the first session. Participants in both conditions exhibited lasting shifts in attitudes, but the effect was considerably larger in the group that confabulated supporting arguments. We fully replicated these findings in Experiment 2 (N = 232)....Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 18, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Ariella S KristalDan Ariely
Apr 16, 2020·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Philip PärnametsLars Hall
Mar 2, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·J Benjamin FalandaysMichael Spivey
Mar 23, 2021·Neuroscience of Consciousness·Benjamin RebouillatSid Kouider
Feb 5, 2020··Jana Schaich BorgDuncan McElfresh

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