Intervention(s)
We begin the survey experiment with baseline questions, including baseline measures of ideology and affective polarization toward out-partisans and the media. Then, anti-polarization treatments and a placebo treatment are randomly assigned. Next, we repeat the affective polarization questions to assess the effects of the anti-polarization treatment on those outcomes.
Next, we turn to our measures of information consumption. First, we ask individuals which news article among six titles they would be interested in reading and sharing. The articles are on three recent polarizing topics, and for each topic, there are two articles, one from a pro-government outlet and one from an anti-government outlet. Individuals are asked to choose one news article to read, and are told that, after their choice, they will be assigned to read one of the articles at random that might be or not the one of their choice. They are also told that, after reading the article, they will be asked some questions about it, as well as their attitudes toward the topic it covers. In reality, respondents are assigned with a 0.99 probability (to avoid deception) to read a news article from their ideologically opposed news source.
Before reading the news article, those assigned to the debiasing nudge receive a message asking them to consider the information without being swayed by their emotions or political preferences, as in Enríquez, Larreguy and Lujambio (2023). After reading the newspaper article, individuals are asked a series of questions to assess their attention to and internalization of the information in the newspaper article. Affective polarization questions are repeated once more. These questions will allow us to understand to what extent affective polarization affects information consumption and internalization, and how information consumption counteracts or reinforces affective polarization.
We consider a placebo and three depolarizing treatment arms, based on the aforementioned literature, which we combine with randomization of the debiasing nudge and a control. The first anti-polarizing treatment is a video presenting information about the public policy preferences of citizens across the ideological spectrum. The intention is to demonstrate that those citizens actually have similar preferences. The second treatment is a video that focuses on generating empathy through perspective getting. Treated individuals are shown several stories about the common needs of different Mexican citizens. The objective is to generate an empathetic reaction by showing that everybody has similar needs, including the need for a safe environment and providing food, education and health care for the children and elderly. Finally, the last treatment is a video that presents information about common values and identities with the goal of enhancing the Mexican identity, while trumping perceived differences between citizens across the ideological spectrum.
While the literature generally considers these treatments in isolation, we also cross-randomly assigned half of the people assigned to the placebo and to any anti-polarizing treatment arm to a debiasing nudge before reading the article. Specifically, we ask those participants to keep an open mind and be receptive to the information they will receive, just as Enriquez et al. (2024).
Our target population is 6,000 respondents who are part of the firm Netquest’s respondent panel survey. The group is roughly representative of the population that consumes news online: 48% male and 52% female; 29% between 18 and 24, 24% between 25 and 34, 21% between 35 and 44, 15% between 45 and 54, and 10% between 55 and 65; the geographic distribution is nationally representative.