Justifying Dissent*

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bursztyn, Leonardo; Egorov, Georgy; Haaland, Ingar; Rao, Aakaash; Roth, Christopher
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; Northwestern University; Norwegian School of Economics (NHH); Harvard University; University of Cologne; Max Planck Society; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjad007
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1403-1451
• 关键词: media; INFORMATION; image; rise

摘要

Dissent plays an important role in any society, but dissenters are often silenced through social sanctions. Beyond their persuasive effects, rationales providing arguments supporting dissenters' causes can increase the public expression of dissent by providing a social cover for voicing otherwise stigmatized positions. Motivated by a simple theoretical framework, we experimentally show that liberals are more willing to post a tweet opposing the movement to defund the police, are seen as less prejudiced, and face lower social sanctions when their tweet implies they had first read credible scientific evidence supporting their position. Analogous experiments with conservatives demonstrate that the same mechanisms facilitate anti-immigrant expression. Our findings highlight both the power of rationales and their limitations in enabling dissent and shed light on phenomena such as social movements, political correctness, propaganda, and antiminority behavior.