Researchers paid regular Fox propaganda network viewers to watch CNN, and the change in network caused them to change their views on issues covered by the networks, The Wrap reports.
David E. Broockman of the University of California, Berkeley and Joshua Kalla of Yale took a group of Fox viewers and paid them to watch seven hours of CNN programming per week during the month of September 2020, in addition to their Fox programming. They held a control group, who continued to only watch Fox, separate.
At the end of the month, the researchers found that the group paid to watch CNN just one hour per day had started adopting more views closer to reality. The group was 5 points more likely to believe that Long Covid existed, and they were 7 percentage points more likely to favor voting by mail.
Their image of Biden supporters also changed as well, with 10 points fewer saying they believed Biden supporters celebrated when police officers were shot.
The study was a culmination of five years of research by Broockman and Kalla, who are taking a deep dive into the effective of partisan media on viewers.