Justifying Dissent

Leonardo Bursztyn (), Georgy Egorov (), Ingar Haaland (), Aakaash Rao () and Christopher Roth
Additional contact information
Leonardo Bursztyn: University of Chicago and NBER
Georgy Egorov: Kellogg School of Management and NBER,
Ingar Haaland: University of Bergen and CESifo
Aakaash Rao: Harvard University

No 141, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: Dissent plays an important role in any society, but dissenters are often silenced through social sanctions. Beyond their persuasive effects, rationales providing arguments supporting dissenters' causes can increase the public expression of dissent by providing a "social cover" for voicing otherwisestigmatized positions. Motivated by a simple theoretical framework, we experimentally show that liberals are more willing to post a Tweet opposing the movement to defund the police, are seen as less prejudiced, and face lower social sanctions when their Tweet implies they had first read scientific evidence supporting their position. Analogous experiments with conservatives demonstrate that the same mechanisms facilitate anti-immigrant expression. Our findings highlight both the power of rationales and their limitations in enabling dissent and shed light on phenomena such as social movements, political correctness, propaganda, and anti-minority behavior.

Keywords: Dissent; social image; rationales; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 D91 J15 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 172 pages
Date: 2022-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_141_2022.pdf First version, 2022 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Justifying Dissent (2023)
Working Paper: Justifying Dissent (2022)
Working Paper: Justifying Dissent (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:141

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