"In a study conducted in 2020, two political scientists found that when devoted Fox News viewers were exposed to CNN for just a month, their critical thinking skills sharpened, leading them to be less susceptible to conspiracy theories and right-wing propaganda."
"Of the 763 Republicans in the survey-the majority of them white men over 50-they found that after just a month, even the most stubborn, most anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives started to see good sense after watching traditional news reporting that didn't force viewers to draw partisan conclusions."
"One month. That's all it took to start breaking through decades of propaganda."
Podcaster Lucas Bean investigated the impact of media exposure on political beliefs using a UC Berkeley and Yale study. Researchers exposed 763 Republicans, primarily white men over 50, to CNN primetime news for one month while paying them $15 hourly and conducting weekly quizzes. Results showed significant shifts in critical thinking and reduced susceptibility to misinformation. Participants stopped believing claims about a stolen election, became less paranoid about mail-in voting, and grew more critical of Trump's policies. The study tested the hypothesis that conservative news outlets under-reported or misreported Trump's first-term failures, demonstrating that exposure to traditional journalistic reporting can break through decades of partisan messaging.
Read at Queerty
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