Onderzoeksartikel

Geloofwaardigheid van opiniepeilingen: voor onwaarschijnlijke opiniepeilingen maakt methodologische informatie het verschil

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Abstract

This study demonstrates that stories reporting unlikely results of opinion polls become more credible when methodological information is included. It also demonstrates that attentive readers take more advantage of such information. One hundred and fifty adults in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, read and evaluated three newspaper stories covering real life polls, which had been obtained from NIPO, a Dutch polling agency. The stories had been selected, after a pretest, for a priori unlikeliness. In one condition, the stories included a paragraph containing methodological information about the poll. In the other condition, this information was omitted. Afterward, subjects rated the stories for credibility. Additionally, subjects were tested for their recall of the story, which provided us with a measure of processing quality. Stories containing methodological information were rated as more credible. This was particularly the case for subjects scoring high on processing quality.

How to Cite:

Magouz, M. & Milikowski, M., (2001) “Geloofwaardigheid van opiniepeilingen: voor onwaarschijnlijke opiniepeilingen maakt methodologische informatie het verschil”, Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap 29(2), 100–111.