Does Information Sway Support for Right-Wing Populism? Evidence from Argentina
5 diciembre, 2024 12:30 hrs
Título: Does Information Sway Support for Right-Wing Populism? Evidence from Argentina
Speaker: Nicolás Ajzenman (McGill)
Abstract: Support for populist and authoritarian regimes is rising worldwide, despite evidence that they often underperform economically. To examine the role of (mis)perceptions of regime performance as drivers of political attitudes, we conducted a survey experiment during Argentina’s 2023 presidential elections. At baseline, optimistic beliefs about the performance of populist and non-democratic regimes were widespread and were correlated with support for these regimes. When exposed to randomly assigned informational treatments challenging optimistic views about autocracies or right-wing populism, individuals significantly adjusted their beliefs and their support for non-populist candidates and regimes. We explore the impact of different information sources, showing that scientific sources and newspapers are more influential than social media. Although individuals appear to adjust their beliefs and attitudes in response to credible information, we find that information countering people’s beliefs reduces their demand for additional information on regime performance, consistent with an important role for motivated reasoning.
Lugar:
Sala de Consejo, Beauchef 851, piso 4 | Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, UCHILE
Expositor:
Nicolás Ajzenman
MIPP Chile 2024