TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding and Attenuating Overreported TV News Exposure
T2 - Testing Anonymity, Self-Affirmation, and Cognitive Survey Manipulations
AU - Shalev, Danit
AU - Tsfati, Yariv
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Broadcast Education Association.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Research has demonstrated time and again that peoples’ self-reports of news exposure are heavily inflated and the reasons for this overreporting remain unclear. In three online survey experiments conducted in Israel, we manipulated the survey procedure to test cognitive and motivational explanations, and attempted to attenuate inflated reports of news exposure. While increasing or decreasing the anonymity of the survey (the ultimate test for social desirability) did not affect participants’ responses, a self-affirmation manipulation reduced reported exposure. A memory-aid manipulation also reduced reported television news exposure, suggesting that the cognitive mechanism possibly relates to memory failure.
AB - Research has demonstrated time and again that peoples’ self-reports of news exposure are heavily inflated and the reasons for this overreporting remain unclear. In three online survey experiments conducted in Israel, we manipulated the survey procedure to test cognitive and motivational explanations, and attempted to attenuate inflated reports of news exposure. While increasing or decreasing the anonymity of the survey (the ultimate test for social desirability) did not affect participants’ responses, a self-affirmation manipulation reduced reported exposure. A memory-aid manipulation also reduced reported television news exposure, suggesting that the cognitive mechanism possibly relates to memory failure.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125910657&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08838151.2022.2039145
DO - 10.1080/08838151.2022.2039145
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125910657
JO - Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
JF - Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
SN - 0883-8151
ER -