HCL+PrioR mtg. Gabrielle Péloquin-Skulski. Monday 10/20 1:30-2:30pm ET
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Antonio Alonso Arechar
Oct 17, 2025, 10:05:04 AM10/17/25
to Human Cooperation Lab
Good morning everyone,
Gabrielle Péloquin-Skulski will present next week (10/20 1:30-2:30pm ET; see blurb below).
If It Bleeds, It Doesn’t (Mis)lead: How Tone Shapes the Belief and Spread of Political Information
Much of the existing research on misinformation focuses on individual-level factors to explain why people believe and share false information. Far less attention has been given to the content of political news itself. This paper examines how the tone and partisan alignment of news—whether it praises the in-group or attacks the out-group—influence truth discernment and sharing behavior. I first conduct a meta-analysis of 21 existing studies to assess whether headlines systematically differ across partisan lines on these dimensions, and how such differences shape belief and sharing intentions. I then field two pre-registered survey experiments (N = 4,600) that directly manipulate headline tone and partisan alignment. Across prior studies, I find that Republican-leaning headlines are more often positive toward the in-group than Democratic-leaning ones. In both the meta-analysis and experiments, respondents of both parties are more likely to share content that favors their side than content attacking the opposition. As a next step, I plan to compare these experimental and meta-analytic patterns to observational data on real-world news circulation, which I will preview in the talk.
Lab meeting will be hybrid, with a zoom link (https://mit.zoom.us/j/91655448125) and in person in the conference room on the 15th floor of E94 (1579; 245 First Street).
Best regards,
Antonio
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If It Bleeds, It Doesn’t (Mis)lead: How Tone Shapes the Belief and Spread of Political Information
Much of the existing research on misinformation focuses on individual-level factors to explain why people believe and share false information. Far less attention has been given to the content of political news itself. This paper examines how the tone and partisan alignment of news—whether it praises the in-group or attacks the out-group—influence truth discernment and sharing behavior. I first conduct a meta-analysis of 21 existing studies to assess whether headlines systematically differ across partisan lines on these dimensions, and how such differences shape belief and sharing intentions. I then field two pre-registered survey experiments (N = 4,600) that directly manipulate headline tone and partisan alignment. Across prior studies, I find that Republican-leaning headlines are more often positive toward the in-group than Democratic-leaning ones. In both the meta-analysis and experiments, respondents of both parties are more likely to share content that favors their side than content attacking the opposition. As a next step, I plan to compare these experimental and meta-analytic patterns to observational data on real-world news circulation, which I will preview in the talk.
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