There's a new book out that suggests Conservatives are more likely to look at information presenting an opposing view than Liberals.
One of the central themes of I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to a Republican is that we know the left but they don’t know us. For those ensconced in leftist geographic enclaves and/or those who toil in progressive (read: regressive) vocations, we absorb the emotion-based reasoning and gratuitous, anemic observations of the other side as if by osmosis.And whereas Yahoo news puts the headline "People Choose News That Fits Their Views" on this report regarding a new study from Ohio State University, it misses this line in its own article:
However, in juxtaposition, the author notes that “among the many things of which we are frequently reminded is how astonishingly little they know about us. What they think they know, they’ve picked up by innuendo, or, very nearly the same thing, the commentary in their preferred media.
"Conservatives buck the trend
Some findings from both researchers suggest that individual confidence and certainty play a role in what people choose to read.
People with stronger party affiliation, conservative political views, and greater interest in politics proved more likely to click on articles with opposing views, according to the Ohio State study.
"It appears that people with these characteristics are more confident in their views and so they're more inclined to at least take a quick look at the counterarguments," Knobloch-Westerwick noted."