Exposure to television and individual beliefs: Evidence from a natural experiment

Abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. Abstract: Does the information provided by mass media have the power to persistently affect individual beliefs about the drivers of success in life? To answer this question empirically, this contribution exploits a natural experiment on the reception of West German television in the former German Democratic Republic. After identifying the impact of Western television on individual beliefs and attitudes in the late 1980s, longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel is used to test the persistence of the television effect on individual beliefs during the 1990s. The empirical findings indicate that Western television exposure has made East Germans more inclined to believe that effort rather than luck determines success in life. Furthermore, this effect still persists several years after the German reunification. Non-technical summary

Media's Role in the Making of a Democrat: Evidence from East Germany

“…In a similar vein, Henninghausen (2015) reports that exposure to Western TV made GDR citizens more inclined to believe that personal success depends on individual effort rather than luck. Finally, Friehe et al (forthcoming) analyze how access to West German TV impacts crime rates.…”

Television and fertility: evidence from a natural experiment

“…Thereby, we take advantage of the Cold War natural experiment described above to identify the effect of Western TV on fertility. Kern and Hainmueller (2009), Hyll and Schneider (2013), Hennighausen (2015), and Bursztyn and Cantoni (2016) use the same natural experiment to study the consequences of West German television on such varying topics as public support for the East German communist regime, material aspirations, individual beliefs, and private consumption, respectively. Although we have plausible arguments that the observed fertility effects most likely stem from different female role models promoted by West and East German TV, there might be other mechanisms from TV consumption in place, which are discussed in more detail in Sect.…”

A Window to the World: The Long-Term Effect of Television on Hate Crime

“…In the GDR districts with Western TV reception such as Magdeburg and Cottbus, the average respondent watched the broadcasts almost daily. In the district of Dresden where for most households the signal was too weak, 63.5 percent stated that they never watched Western television (Hennighausen 2015). The lack of foreign television did not lead to fewer purchases of TV sets, indicating that the citizens instead consumed GDR television (Bursztyn and Cantoni 2016).…”