Restoring trust in truth-seekers: Effects of op/eds defending journalism and justice.

Restoring trust in truth-seekers: Effects of op/eds defending journalism and justice.

Blog Article

A healthy democracy requires trust that people can be impartial in important truth-seeking institutions including journalism, justice, and science.Recently some U.S.elites have adopted alarmingly extreme rhetoric against truth-seekers, denouncing mainstream journalism as fake news, criminal investigations as partisan witch-hunts, climate science as a hoax, and career Leggings civil servants as a deep state conspiracy.In response, some news organizations have taken the unusual step of publishing op/eds defending these institutions.

Two experiments tested effects of such op/eds.In study 1, participants spent Bath Oils twelve days using a purpose-built news portal containing real, timely news with random assignment to the availability of real, timely op/eds defending impartiality of truth-seekers.These op/eds increased trust in truth-seeking institutions and increased the belief that people can serve as impartial professionals.Study 2 replicated this with a laboratory experiment assigning video op/ed exposure instead of text op/ed availability while adding several outcomes.