Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Moral Values And Ideological Conclusions Influence Perceived Credibility For Headlines, Morning Baker, Nick Clark, Helen Harton

INSPIRE Student Research and Engagement Conference

People prioritize moral values differently based on political ideology (Graham et al., 2009) and form ideological conclusions based on these values (Haidt, 2001). For example, conservatives have more positive perceptions of police compared to liberals (Stack & Cao, 1998), in part because of the centrality of law and order as a conservative value. People also justify maintaining their political affiliation by defining opposing conclusions as less credible (Bail et al., 2018; Haidt, 2001). In this study, we investigate how ideological values vs. conclusions affect perceived credibility of and interest in headlines. We hypothesize that conservatives and liberals will rate headlines …