Replication Data for: Partisan Media, Untrustworthy News Sites, and Political Misperceptions

This study investigates the potential role both untrustworthy and partisan websites play in misinforming audiences by testing whether actual exposure to these sites is associated with political misperceptions. Using a sample of American adult social media users, we match data from individuals’ Internet browser histories with a survey measuring the accuracy of political beliefs. We find that visits to partisan websites are at times related to misperceptions consistent with the political bias of the site. However, we do not find strong evidence that untrustworthy websites consistently relate to false beliefs. There is also little evidence that visits to less partisan, centrist news sites are associated with more accurate political beliefs about these issues, suggesting that exposure to politically neutral news is not necessarily the antidote to misinformation. Results suggest that focusing on partisan news sites—rather than untrustworthy sites—may be fruitful to understanding how media contribute to political misperceptions.本研究旨在探究不可信网站与党派导向网站在误导受众过程中所扮演的潜在角色，通过检验实际接触此类网站是否与政治认知偏差存在关联展开分析。本研究以美国成年社交媒体用户为样本，将受访者的互联网浏览器历史记录数据与测量其政治信念准确性的调查数据进行匹配分析。研究结果显示，访问党派导向网站有时会产生与该网站政治倾向相符的政治认知偏差。然而，本研究并未发现有力证据表明不可信网站会持续引发虚假政治信念。此外，鲜有证据显示访问低党派倾向、中立立场的新闻网站，能让用户在此类议题上形成更准确的政治信念，这表明接触政治中立新闻未必能成为错误信息的解药。研究结果表明，相较于不可信网站，聚焦党派导向新闻网站的相关研究或能更有效地帮助学界理解媒体如何推动政治认知偏差的形成。