Pictures are worth many words : effectiveness of visual communication in dispelling the rent-control misconception
Brandts, Jordi (Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica)
Busom i Piquer, Isabel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
López-Mayan, Cristina (Universitat de Barcelona)
Panadés Martí, Judith (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Facultat d'Economia i Empresa

Imprint:	Bellaterra : Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Aplicada 2022
Description:	47 pag.
Abstract:	The popular belief that rent-control leads to an increase in the amount of affordable housing is in contradiction with ample empirical evidence and congruent theoretical explanations. It can therefore be qualified as a misconception. We present the results of a preregistered on-line experiment in which we study how to dispel this misconception using a refutational approach both in a video and in a text format. Communication in a video format comes closer to how citizens are typically exposed to information. We find that the refutational video has a significantly higher positive impact on revising the misconception than a refutational text, an effect that is driven by the departure from the misconception by individuals who initially agreed with it. The refutational text, in turn, does not have a significant impact relative to a non-refutational baseline text. Higher cognitive reflective ability positively affects the impact on beliefs of all interventions. Our research shows that visual communication effectively reduces the gap between scientific economic knowledge and the views of citizens.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PID2020-112739GA-I00 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PID2020-114251GB-I00 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PGC2018-094364-B-I00 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad RTI2018-095799-B-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación CEX2019-000915-S
Note:	The authors acknowledge financial support from The Social Observatory of "la Caixa" Foundation
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Series:	Document de treball (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Aplicada) ; 02.22
Document:	Working paper
Subject:	Misconceptions ; Written and visual communication ; Refutation ; Persuasion ; Online experiment

Adreça alternativa: https://www.uab.cat/web/recerca/working-papers-1292571229094.html

47 p, 2.0 MB

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Research literature > Working papers > Department of Applied Economics. Working papers