V. Price et D. Tewksbury, MEASURING THE 3RD-PERSON EFFECT OF NEWS - THE IMPACT OF QUESTION ORDER, CONTRAST AND KNOWLEDGE, International journal of public opinion research, 8(2), 1996, pp. 120-141
This study investigated the extent to which the third-person effect-th
e tendency of people to estimate greater impact of media messages on '
other people' than on themselves-might depend upon question-contrast e
ffects (i.e. self-serving comparisons triggered by back-to-back questi
ons dealing with effect on others and oneself), the order of questions
, and respondents' levels of background political knowledge. Two hundr
ed acid eighty-seven subjects participated in two experimental studies
involving questions about media coverage of President Clinton's possi
ble role in the 'Whitewater Affair', his alleged frequent policy rever
sals, the O. J. Simpson murder trial, and child molestation charges ag
ainst Michael Jackson. Both experiments resulted in significant third-
person effects that did not depend upon having the same respondents an
swer both questions; means for single-question (no contrast) condition
s did not differ significantly from comparable means in two-question (
contrast) conditions. No significant main effects of question order we
re observed. In Experiment 1 a significant interaction between politic
al knowledge and question order was found, such that a negative relati
onship between knowledge and perceived impact on oneself emerged when
the 'self question followed a question about perceived effects on othe
rs. Experiment 2 replicated the interaction for two of three news stim
uli, and indicated that it was not a product of differences in the per
sonal importance of issues. Implications of these results for understa
nding the third-person effect are discussed.