TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential susceptibility to misleading flat earth arguments on youtube
AU - Landrum, Asheley R.
AU - Olshansky, Alex
AU - Richards, Othello
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - YouTube has been influential in propagating Flat Earth Ideology, but not everyone is equally susceptible to the effects of watching these videos. In an experiment with a participant pool restricted to regular YouTube users, we found that lower science intelligence and higher conspiracy mentality increase individuals’ susceptibility to flat Earth arguments on YouTube. In fact, these two dispositional variables interact: whereas people with lower conspiracy mentality do not find the arguments compelling at any level of science intelligence, among those with higher conspiracy mentality, perception of argument strength decreases as science intelligence increases. Moreover, perceptions of argument strength varied on the thrust of the clip’s argument (science-, conspiracy-, or religious-based), with the religious appeal being perceived as weaker and inspiring more counterarguing than the science clip. We discuss implications for both the knowledge deficit hypothesis and for the differential susceptibility to media effects model.
AB - YouTube has been influential in propagating Flat Earth Ideology, but not everyone is equally susceptible to the effects of watching these videos. In an experiment with a participant pool restricted to regular YouTube users, we found that lower science intelligence and higher conspiracy mentality increase individuals’ susceptibility to flat Earth arguments on YouTube. In fact, these two dispositional variables interact: whereas people with lower conspiracy mentality do not find the arguments compelling at any level of science intelligence, among those with higher conspiracy mentality, perception of argument strength decreases as science intelligence increases. Moreover, perceptions of argument strength varied on the thrust of the clip’s argument (science-, conspiracy-, or religious-based), with the religious appeal being perceived as weaker and inspiring more counterarguing than the science clip. We discuss implications for both the knowledge deficit hypothesis and for the differential susceptibility to media effects model.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073957980&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15213269.2019.1669461
DO - 10.1080/15213269.2019.1669461
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073957980
SN - 1521-3269
VL - 24
SP - 136
EP - 165
JO - Media Psychology
JF - Media Psychology
IS - 1
ER -