We Dislike Them, so They Lie: Partisan Bias in Perception of Accuracy of Factual Claims

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate how and to what extent partisan bias affects the perceived accuracy of factual claims made by politicians in Slovakia. In our research, respondents (N = 122) were asked to create their own ranking of the credibility of politicians. The respondents were later asked to estimate the average factual accuracy of the most trusted, moderately trusted, and least trusted politicians. Data from the non-partisan fact-check project Demagog.SK was used as the baseline data for testing the actual factual accuracy of politicians. This survey experiment also tests the effect of anchoring. The results suggest no positive partisan bias, and, hence, the absence of partisan favoritism. The study shows that people tend to believe that politicians use of false claims disproportionately more often than in reality