Judgements of Propaganda Near and Far: National Identity and Media Evaluations

ABSTRACT Western media often critiques foreign governments for their propaganda efforts while ignoring similar efforts by their own government. We predicted that individuals would demonstrate a similar bias. An experiment with 282 Canadian participants revealed just the opposite: when asked overtly, participants judged a video attributed to their own government to be more like propaganda than identical foreign media. When asked covertly (e.g., about the video's bias), we observed no effect, and national identity was not a moderator for Canadians. In a direct replication, Americans ( N = 457) also judged domestic videos as more like propaganda than foreign ones, whether perceptions of propaganda were measured overtly or covertly. This difference was especially true of those lower and average in national identity, compared to those higher. A follow‐up study demonstrated that Americans ( N = 380) who are left‐leaning are more likely to show this bias against domestic media, compared to those who are centrist or right‐leaning. These studies demonstrate that people can be more critical of their own government's messaging relative to the same messaging by a foreign power, the opposite of holding a self‐serving double standard.