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Matthias Diermeier at European Political Science Review External Publication 5. January 2023 Tailoring the Truth: evidence on parliamentarians’ responsiveness and misinformation toleration from a field experiment

The rise of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) is largely seen to have been triggered by a dealignment between voters and political elites and to have triggered an increasing supply of misinformation.

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evidence on parliamentarians’ responsiveness and misinformation toleration from a field experiment
Matthias Diermeier at European Political Science Review External Publication 5. January 2023

Tailoring the Truth: evidence on parliamentarians’ responsiveness and misinformation toleration from a field experiment

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

The rise of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) is largely seen to have been triggered by a dealignment between voters and political elites and to have triggered an increasing supply of misinformation.

The present contribution sets up a field experiment to zoom in on one-to-one communication between voters and their parliamentarians. By drawing on pieces of misinformation that are present among different parties’ supporters, artificial citizen’s requests are sent to all 2503 German federal parliamentarians. In fact, PRRP politicians do not turn out to be more responsive and they are by far more reluctant to reject misinformation. In contrast, parliamentarians of all other parties largely object to misinformation, even if it matches their political positions and is shared by their electorates. In opposition to PRRP politicians who reveal signs of vote-seeking behaviour, established parties’ communication behaviour indicates a high degree of intrinsic motivation.

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External Publication
evidence on parliamentarians’ responsiveness and misinformation toleration from a field experiment
Matthias Diermeier at European Political Science Review External Publication 5. January 2023

Tailoring the Truth: evidence on parliamentarians’ responsiveness and misinformation toleration from a field experiment

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

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Results of the IW Works Council Election Survey
Christian Kestermann / Hagen Lesch / Oliver Stettes IW-Trends No. 4 29. December 2022

Works Council Elections 2022: Results of the IW Works Council Election Survey

Works councils receive strong backing from the workforces they represent. Nevertheless, the drop in turnout reported in the IW Works Council Election Survey 2022 suggests that this support is declining.

IW

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Jan Büchel / Klaus-Heiner Röhl IW-Trends No. 4 28. December 2022

Do Differences in Data Management Help to Explain Persistent Productivity Differences Between Western and Eastern Germany?

Since the mid-1990s the economies of the five states of ex-communist Eastern Germany have been converging only slowly with the rest of the Republic, though the process has not come to a complete halt.

IW

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