While there is an association between need for structure and belief that media was intentionally deceitful among both republican and democratic participants, this link was reliably stronger in the case of Republican participants.

University of Delaware

Although humans ordinarily prioritize self-enhancing information, individuals also often perceive news media as largely opposing their personal beliefs.

Biases in media perception

Axt, J., Landau, M., Kay, A. (2020). The Psychological Appeal of Fake News Attributions. Association for Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620922785 

The Psychological Appeal of Fake-News Attributions

A phenomenon in which individuals with opposing viewpoints both perceive the same news media as being biased against their position.

The hostile media phenomenon

Conservatives have been found to indicate more distrust of the media than liberals.

Asymmetries in perception of media bias

Asymmetries in link between need for structure and perception of deceit in media

When participants read an essay about the misinformation spread by the political party opposite their own affiliation, there was a positive association between need for structure and their attributions of media as intentionally deceitful. 

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