Case Closed? On the John F. Kennedy Assassination: Biased Assimilation of Evidence and Attitude Polarization

McHoskey, John W.

doi:10.1207/s15324834basp1703_7

Cited by 128 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…First, conspiracy theories have surrounded the death of Princess Diana and the Kennedy assassination for some time. In fact, conspiracies about the death of President Kennedy remain among the most widely held in American society (McCauley & Jacques, 1979;McHoskey, 1995). A second considerable limitation is the blending of both historical and conspiratorial information in both studies.…”

Section: Fictional Media and Conspiracy Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Fictional Media for Political Beliefs

Mulligan

Habel

2012

American Politics Research

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Most research on media effects in political science deals with the news media or political campaigns. While some recent work looks at the effects of soft news on beliefs and opinions, little attention has been paid to the potential consequences of media that are fictional. Although viewers typically watch fiction for entertainment, the themes, plots, and dialogue may nevertheless influence their thoughts about politics. This paper examines the effects of fiction on political beliefs. We do this in the context of an experimental design, where subjects in the treatment group watched the outlandish movie, Wag the Dog. The results show that those who watched the film were more likely to believe in a far-fetched conspiracy, namely that the U.S. government has and will fabricate a war for political gain. The findings stretch the boundaries of fictional influence by focusing on extreme, conspiratorial beliefs. We suggest that political science and communications scholars should focus greater attention on the implications of fiction for beliefs and attitudes, as the consequences can be perverse.

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Section: Fictional Media and Conspiracy Beliefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Fictional Media for Political Beliefs

Mulligan

Habel

2012

American Politics Research

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“…hypothesis confirmation; Snyder, 1984), and also motivational accounts such as cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957). Such biased assimilation of information typically leads to attitude polarization, where a prior belief is reinforced (McHoskey, 1995). 10 This bias also operates at the group level where it can be reinforced by social pressures.…”

Section: Some Reasons For the Breakdown In Corporate Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

History repeats itself: The failure of rational choice models in corporate governance

Marnet

2007

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

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Conventional proposals to reform corporate governance based on the rational model of decision making may be insufficient in preventing future corporate debacles. Typically underestimated are the pressures from conflicts of interest and bias on reputational intermediaries. Judgements and choices made by auditors during professional engagements may not strictly adhere to the rational model of decision making. This is of significance with regard to the gatekeeper function of auditors and relevant legislation. A discussion on earnings management elaborates by suggesting that strictly numerical measures are not a reliable guide to the quality of corporate governance. It is suggested that our understanding of monitor behaviour in corporate governance would be improved by placing it on psychologically more realistic foundations. Some of these foundations are introduced.

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“…Meanwhile, researchers interested in cognitive factors have explored issues such as people's (lack of) awareness of their own susceptibility to conspiracy theories (Douglas and Sutton, 2008), whether or not conspiracy theorists exhibit a bias towards seeking big causes to explain big effects, or whether they are, for example susceptible to 'biased assimilation' -the tendency to uncritically accept evidence supporting a pre-existing view and reject disconfirming information (e.g. McCauley and Jacques, 1979, Butler et al, 1995, McHoskey, 1995, Leman and Cinnirella, 2007, Leman, 2007.…”

Section: The Emerging 'Social Psychology Of Conspiracy Theories'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies looking at social psychological factors have, on the other hand, produced largely inconsistent findings allowing only tentative conclusions. For example, some studies have found a positive correlation between conspiracy beliefs and authoritarianism (Abalakina-Paap et al, 1999, Grzesiak-Feldman andIrzycka, 2009); others found no correlation (McHoskey, 1995), while one recent study even suggested that people who are authoritarian have a greater tendency to be swayed by non-6 conspiratorial explanations . Similarly, while numerous studies have found a link between minority status and belief in conspiracy theories, the extent to which this relationship is mediated by socio-economic factors remains to be determined.…”

Section: The Emerging 'Social Psychology Of Conspiracy Theories'mentioning

confidence: 99%