POL SCI 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Walter Lippmann, Cognitive Bias
Document Summary
Gradually he makes for himself a trustworthy picture inside his head of the world beyond his reach. For the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so much permutations and combinations. And although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage it. Partisan bias: partisans" beliefs about objective conditions can be shaped (distorted) by partisan bias. Citizens are not like politicians big role for emotion, identity. Strengthening attachment to their own group (party) influences evaluation. Incentives to engage in motivated reasoning search for information that confirms existing views and/or is compatible with your team"s positions. Implications: lots of room for elites (political leaders, media) Cues about the group"s position (example: global warming) Heuristics and aggregation do not occur in a vacuum.
