Fondazione GRINS
Growing Resilient,
Inclusive and Sustainable
Galleria Ugo Bassi 1, 40121, Bologna, IT
C.F/P.IVA 91451720378
Finanziato dal Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR), Missione 4 (Infrastruttura e ricerca), Componente 2 (Dalla Ricerca all’Impresa), Investimento 1.3 (Partnership Estese), Tematica 9 (Sostenibilità economica e finanziaria di sistemi e territori).
Open Access
We use a large-scale survey experiment in Italy to study how citizens update their beliefs about the effects of highly salient and politically contested policy reforms when exposed to scientific evidence.
We find that, while prior beliefs are often inconsistent with accurate scientific evidence, providing this evidence shifts beliefs towards greater accuracy.
Crucially, belief updating is largely independent of the political alignment of the media source conveying the information. This suggests that credible evidence can overcome partisan divides.
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AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Pamela Giustinelli, Andreas Menzel, Lorenzo Rocco and the audiences in Padova and Naples for comments. This project is funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU in the framework of the GRINS - Growing Resilient INclusive and Sustainable project (GRINS PE00000018 – CUP E63C22002140007). The experiment was pre-registered in the AEA RCT Registry under the title Policy Impacts are in the Eye of the Beholder (AEARCTR-0015899). The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union nor can the European Union be held responsible for them.
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