Political Science

Null effects of news exposure: a test of the (un)desirable effects of a 'news vacation' and 'news binging'

M. Wojcieszak, B. C. V. Hohenberg, et al.

This preregistered research by Magdalena Wojcieszak and colleagues explores the impact of news exposure on political knowledge, participation, and well-being. Surprisingly, both reducing and increasing news intake showed no significant effects on these outcomes. Discover why the average news exposure might only constitute 3% of our online information diet!

00:00

Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

This preregistered project examines news exposure effects on desirable outcomes (political knowledge, participation, support for compromise) and detrimental outcomes (attitude and affective polarization, negative system perceptions, worsened well-being). Two over-time experiments combining survey self-reports and behavioral browsing data were conducted: one incentivizing a 'news vacation' (N=803) in the US, the other 'news binging' (N=939) in Poland. Results show that reducing or increasing news exposure has no impact on the tested outcomes, irrespective of participants' prior news consumption and compliance levels. These null effects are argued to reflect the limited news exposure in the real world, averaging roughly 3% of citizens' online information diet.

Publisher

Humanities & Social Sciences Communications

Published On

Nov 18, 2022

Authors

Magdalena Wojcieszak, Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg, Andreu Casas, Ericka Menchen-Trevino, Sjifra de Leeuw, Alexandre Gonçalves, Miriam Boon

Related Publications

Explore these studies to deepen your understanding of the subject.

Biology

Neuroimaging the effects of smartphone (over-)use on brain function and structure-a review on the current state of MRI-based findings and a roadmap for future research

C. Montag and B. Becker

Economics

Unraveling the effects of a rehabilitation program on the socioeconomic wellbeing of beggars and begging motivation: evidence from an urban area of Bangladesh

M. K. Islam, N. Nasrin, et al.

Sociology

Health literacy, religiosity, and political identification as predictors of vaccination conspiracy beliefs: a test of the deficit and contextual models

Ž. Pavić, E. Kovačević, et al.

Political Science

Social corrections act as a double-edged sword by reducing the perceived accuracy of false and real news in the UK, Germany, and Italy

F. Stoeckel, S. Stöckli, et al.

Listen, Learn & Level Up

Over 10,000 hours of research content in 25+ fields, available in 12+ languages.

No more digging through PDFs, just hit play and absorb the world's latest research in your language, on your time.

listen to research audio papers with researchbunny