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You’re invited to join Yamil Ricardo Velez, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, for an American Politics Speaker Series discussion sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Center for American Political Studies.

Registration is encouraged but not required. This event series will not be recorded.

This event is open to Harvard ID holders only. Lunch will be served.

Abstract

Do citizens update strongly held beliefs when presented with belief-incongruent information, and does such updating affect downstream attitudes? Though fact-checking studies find that corrections reliably influence beliefs, attitudinal effects are negligible. We argue that such findings may reflect belief importance -- the extent to which specific beliefs bear on attitudes. Using large language models (LLMs), we elicit core issue attitudes and focal beliefs that are described as central to those attitudes. We then randomly assign participants to receive either an LLM-generated correction targeting (1) their focal belief, (2) an attitude-relevant but unmentioned belief ("distal belief"), or (3) a placebo. In two large online convenience samples (N1 = 2,468; N2 = 1,910), we show that corrections successfully decrease both focal and distal belief strength, with effects persisting after one week. More importantly, focal belief corrections produce larger and more durable attitude change than distal corrections. These findings suggest that corrective information can successfully shift political attitudes when targeting "focal beliefs,'' providing new evidence for the role of belief importance in persuasion.

About the Series

The United States is a crossroads. How can Americans connect to each other in deep and meaningful ways, despite holding drastically different political world views? What are the causes and consequences of our nation’s historic levels of partisan polarization? Just how far can democratic backsliding go? The American Politics Speaker Series (APSS) aims to bring together scholars who are doing research on these and other important questions. Hosted jointly with the Center for American Political Studies and chaired by Professors Benjamin Schneer and Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, each session will highlight a scholar whose research is at the forefront of the study of American politics.

Event Details

The Ash Center encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its events. Should you wish to enquire about an accommodation, please contact our events team at info@ash.harvard.edu prior to the event.