The Ideological Boundary of Belief Change

ABSTRACT This article investigates the relationship between political ideology and the extent to which individuals revise their beliefs when confronted with counter‐attitudinal information. Across two preregistered experiments conducted with demographically quota‐matched Polish samples (total N = 1096), we assessed belief change on political and non‐political issues among participants spanning the full ideological spectrum. Exposure to counterevidence significantly increased belief revision, especially for non‐political topics. Although right‐leaning individuals showed slightly greater belief change than left‐leaning participants, model comparisons favoured an inverted U‐shaped over a linear association: people with moderate ideological views updated more, whereas those at either ideological extreme updated less. These findings suggest that reduced belief updating is associated more consistently with ideological extremity than with ideological direction, informing ongoing debates on ideological asymmetry.

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Publication Details

Journal
European Journal of Social Psychology
Published
2026-09-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70110
Primary Topic
Critical Realism in Sociology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

The Ideological Boundary of Belief Change

Anna Knorr, Paulina Szwed, Małgorzata Kossowska, Agata Andrysiak et al.
European Journal of Social Psychology
Critical Realism in Sociology
article

The Ideological Boundary of Belief Change

Anna Knorr, Paulina Szwed, Małgorzata Kossowska, Agata Andrysiak, Gabriela Czarnek
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the relationship between political ideology and the extent to which individuals revise their beliefs when confronted with counter‐attitudinal information. Across two preregistered experiments conducted with demographically quota‐matched Polish samples (total N = 1096), we assessed belief change on political and non‐political issues among participants spanning the full ideological spectrum. Exposure to counterevidence significantly increased belief revision, especially for non‐political topics. Although right‐leaning individuals showed slightly greater belief change than left‐leaning participants, model comparisons favoured an inverted U‐shaped over a linear association: people with moderate ideological views updated more, whereas those at either ideological extreme updated less. These findings suggest that reduced belief updating is associated more consistently with ideological extremity than with ideological direction, informing ongoing debates on ideological asymmetry.

European Journal of Social Psychology
Jagiellonian University (PL), Province of Antwerp (BE), Institute of Psychology (PL), European University Institute (IT)
UK Research and Innovation, European Commission, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 25%
Critical Realism in Sociology
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