Brendan Nyhan

Month: October 2013

  • New research on correcting misperceptions

    Jason Reifler and I released a New America Foundation report today titled “Which Corrections Work? Research results and practice recommendations.” Here’s the executive summary: Social science research has found that misinformation about politics and other controversial issues is often very difficult to correct. However, all corrections are not necessarily equal— some approaches to presenting corrective

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  • New at CJR: Factcheck lower-level politicians!

    I recently wrote a column for Columbia Journalism Review based on my field experiment with Jason Reifler testing the effectiveness of fact-checking on state legislators. Here’s how it begins: Factcheckers often struggle to change the minds of skeptical voters. But what effect do they have on the politicians under scrutiny? Can the threat of being

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  • Results from a new fact-checking field experiment

    My co-author Jason Reifler and I announced the results of a new study today in a Politico op-ed. Here’s how it begins: Although the federal government is currently shut down as a result of Republican efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act, many important debates over health policy going forward will take place at the

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  • On the Media interview on polarization/shutdown

    I was interviewed by On the Media’s Bob Garfield about how the media should cover the role of polarization in the government shutdown for this week’s show – here’s the audio:

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  • New at CJR: The roots of the shutdown fight

    In my latest column for CJR, I urge reporters to go deeper in their coverage of the shutdown/debt ceiling fight and investigate the positions held by individual members of the House GOP and the political implications of those positions in their districts. Here’s how it begins: Washington is in full blame-game mode as the federal

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