【时间】6月25日（星期二）12:00-13:30

【地点】理科五号楼521会议室

【主题】Who Believes Government Propaganda? Experimental Evidence from China

【摘要】Who believes propaganda in non-democracies? The critical challenge in discerning effects of propaganda based on survey data is “false believers” caused by the social desirability bias and expressive values of answering survey questions. We offer the first systematic and individual-level demographic analysis of the effects of propaganda in a non-democracy based on a nationally representative urban resident survey in China. To address the problem, this paper uses the approach of incentivized responses; a technique that has recently been applied in the field of American politics. By randomly distributing monetary incentives for correct responses and admitting ignorance when subjects answer factual questions, this approach helps us minimize insincere responses among the treated and identify genuine believers of propaganda. To further identify disguised believers who fear political coercion, we apply a second experimental manipulation that explicitly warns against stigmatization of the revolutionary history of the Chinese Communist Party. We find that monetary incentives did not reduce the size of propaganda believers. However, they did induce individuals who would otherwise choose “don’t know” to identify with correct responses. The coercive message only induced individuals to identify with correct responses in limited cases.

【主讲人】陆风鸣（北京大学-普林斯顿大学联合培养博士后）