Anchoring in the past, tweeting from the present: Cognitive bias in journalists' word choices.

Jihye Lee,James T Hamilton,Marcel Pikhart

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263730

Abstract

This study examines journalists’ language in their reporting and what their word choices reveal about their cognitive mindsets. Reporters on the campaign trail often cannot afford to engage in systematic information processing as they distill complex political situations under deadline pressures. Twitter’s emphasis on speed and informal cultural milieu can further lead journalists to rely on heuristics and emotions. Drawing upon insights from theories of the mind, memory, and language, this study explores how cognitive biases are embodied in journalistic work across different media. We built a large-scale dataset of text corpora that consisted of more than 220,000 news articles, broadcast transcripts, and tweets generated over a year by 73 campaign reporters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Leveraging this unique dataset of journalistic outputs from a campaign season, we conducted automated text analyses. Results suggest that heuristics and intuitive thinking played a significant role in the generation of content on Twitter. Journalists infused their tweets with more emotion, compared to when they appeared in traditional media such as newspapers and broadcasts. Journalists’ tweets contained fewer words related to analytical and long-term thinking than their writing. Journalists also used informal language in their tweets to connect with their audiences in more personal and casual manners. Across all media examined in the study, journalists described the current race by drawing upon their experience of covering prior presidential elections, a form of anchoring heuristic. This study extends the use of cognitive biases in politics to a new realm, reporting, and shows how journalists’ use of language on the campaign trail reflects cognitive biases that arise when individuals make decisions under time pressure and uncertainty.

Highlights

The present study uses theories of cognition to explore how time pressures can influence journalists as they make coverage decisions during a presidential campaign
Research in various traditions have explored journalists’ cognitive processes and how cognitive biases can be manifested in their word choices. Building upon this prior research, the present study examines how cognitive biases can be embodied in journalistic outputs, focusing on potential differences across media and how the differences in journalists’ word choices can reflect distinct cognitive processes employed by journalists
We hypothesize that when journalists are under the time pressures of Twitter, they will engage in System 1 thinking characterized by an emotional and self-validating information process that focuses on the present moment rather than a longer time horizon

Summary

Introduction

The present study uses theories of cognition to explore how time pressures can influence journalists as they make coverage decisions during a presidential campaign. Cognitive bias among journalists more slowly, analytically, and systematically to arrive at a conclusion. People spend most of their time engaged in System 1 thinking since it minimizes cognitive effort and alleviates time pressure through the use of heuristics. When exposed to new information, people may not always engage in analytical thinking and often rely on the first piece of information even when it is irrelevant [5]. This tendency is not constrained to specific individuals but rather describes general patterns of human behavior. System 1 thinking can be prone to errors, people can operate naturally as cognitive misers and try to ‘satisfice’ perceived needs [6]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion