Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This conceptual paper examines the literature of news exemplification effects and points out the problematic theoretical accounts on the dominant effects of news exemplification in communication research. The use of heuristics is inherently conflicting with the elaborated processes of generating estimates of issue positions from the aggregation of exemplars. The psychological literature in the base-rate fallacy is reviewed to provide new insight into the clarification of the theoretical contradiction. Such a clarification has both theoretical and practical significance to the literature of news exemplification effects, particularly in generating more constructive defense mechanisms against the dominant, biasing effects of unrepresentative news exemplification. Comparability of the psychological and communication paradigms is established and suggestions for future empirical study are made.