TY - JOUR
T1 - You cannot be serious
T2 - The impact of accuracy incentives on partisan bias in reports of economic perceptions
AU - Prior, Markus
AU - Sood, Gaurav
AU - Khanna, Kabir
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 M. Prior, G. Sood, and K. Khanna.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - When surveyed about economic conditions, supporters of the president's party often report more positive conditions than its opponents. Scholars have interpreted this finding to mean that partisans cannot even agree on matters of fact. We test an alternative interpretation: Partisans give partisan congenial answers even when they have, or could have inferred, information less flattering to the party they identify with. To test this hypothesis, we administered two surveys to nationally representative samples, experimentally manipulating respondents' motivation to be accurate via monetary incentives and on-screen appeals. Both treatments reduced partisan differences in reports of economic conditions significantly. Many partisans interpret factual questions about economic conditions as opinion questions, unless motivated to see them otherwise. Typical survey conditions thus reveal a mix of what partisans know about the economy, and what they would like to be true.
AB - When surveyed about economic conditions, supporters of the president's party often report more positive conditions than its opponents. Scholars have interpreted this finding to mean that partisans cannot even agree on matters of fact. We test an alternative interpretation: Partisans give partisan congenial answers even when they have, or could have inferred, information less flattering to the party they identify with. To test this hypothesis, we administered two surveys to nationally representative samples, experimentally manipulating respondents' motivation to be accurate via monetary incentives and on-screen appeals. Both treatments reduced partisan differences in reports of economic conditions significantly. Many partisans interpret factual questions about economic conditions as opinion questions, unless motivated to see them otherwise. Typical survey conditions thus reveal a mix of what partisans know about the economy, and what they would like to be true.
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U2 - 10.1561/100.00014127
DO - 10.1561/100.00014127
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84973596638
SN - 1554-0626
VL - 10
SP - 489
EP - 518
JO - Quarterly Journal of Political Science
JF - Quarterly Journal of Political Science
IS - 4
ER -