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RESEARCH PRODUCT

What drives increases in hindsight impressions after the reception of biased media content?

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Prior research has shown that reading biased media content (e.g., Wikipedia articles) can increase recipients' hindsight bias. It remained unclear, however, which features of the biased texts led to such an increase. We examined this question in a longitudinal experimental study (N = 190). Specifically, we tested whether repeated exposure to already known information (H₁), a more coherent presentation of the information (H₂), or the presentation of novel information (H₃) affected readers' hindsight impressions of likelihood, inevitability, and foreseeability. To this end, participants initially learned about an event by reading several short news, and, 1 week later, received one of several summarizing texts, which systematically varied in the information contained. We found empirical support for the unique effect of mere repeated exposure and receiving novel information. Since media coverage of meaningful events is usually highly repetitive but also often comprising novel information, our findings contribute to a better understanding of how hindsight bias may publicly persist or even increase over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).