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Americans Are More Likely to Choose News That Supports Their Beliefs
This New Study Reveals Why. [The Debrief]: “A new study published in Communication Research suggests that people often prefer news that aligns with their existing beliefs, a tendency known as “selective exposure.” According to the new research, this habit is particularly noticeable in the United States, where partisan divides and “echo chambers” are becoming more prominent. This became increasingly extreme in the wake of the recent U.S. election. Information Overload.
In today’s digital age, people have access to almost unlimited information. With so many options, it’s easy to think that readers would naturally encounter various viewpoints, including those they may disagree with. A recent study led by Professor Tetsuro Kobayashi from Waseda University, alongside researchers Ling Liu and Zhifan Zhang, wanted to determine if the prevalence of echo chambers was higher in the U.S. than in other countries.
Their study examined how people in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong engage with news, revealing notable differences in how selective exposure occurs across these countries. The U.S. had the highest prevalence of readers preferring news aligned with their beliefs. “In the US, this selective exposure is fueled by several factors,” Kobayashi said in a recent statement. “The country has a highly polarized and emotionally divided political environment, and many news outlets have clear political leanings.”
Moving Beyond the U.S.
While previous studies have examined news consumption, many focus solely on the U.S., where news outlets tend to have more political leanings. This makes it difficult to translate any findings to other countries, where news is more bipartisan
“Since political communication research is predominantly US-centric, there is a tendency to apply American findings directly to the Asian context,” Kobayashi added. “Our study challenges this tendency and demonstrates the importance of research tailored to the Asian context.”
By examining news consumption in Japan and Hong Kong alongside the US, the researchers aimed to understand if selective exposure is a universal behavior or if specific national and cultural factors shape
A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity”
Open Culture – Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944): “…Now declassified and freely available on the CIA website, the manual that the agency describes as “surprisingly relevant” was once distributed to OSS officers abroad to assist them in training “citizen-saboteurs” in occupied countries like Norway and France.
Such people, writes Rebecca Onion at Slate, “might already be sabotaging materials, machinery, or operations of their own initiative,” but may have lacked the devious talent for sowing chaos that only an intelligence agency can properly master. Genuine laziness, arrogance, and mindlessness may surely be endemic. But the Field Manualasserts that “purposeful stupidity is contrary to human nature” and requires a particular set of skills. The citizen-saboteur “frequently needs pressure, stimulation or assurance, and information and suggestions regarding feasible methods of simple sabotage.”
You can read the full document here. Or find an easy-to-read version on Project Gutenberg here. To get a sense of just how “timeless”—according to the CIA itself—such instructions remain, see the abridged list below, courtesy of Business Insider. You will laugh ruefully, then maybe shudder a little as you recognize how much your own workplace, and many others, resemble the kind of dysfunctional mess the OSS meticulously planned during World War II…
Organizations and Conferences
- Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
- Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
- When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committee as large as possible — never less than five.
- Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
- Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
- Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
- Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on...”