{"title":"互联网回音室与法官的错误信息:中国法官对公众支持死刑的看法案例","authors":"Zhuang Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.irle.2021.106028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In authoritarian regimes, without voting as a channel to gather public preferences, online public expression may become a major type of public opinion the government collects. However, online information can be biased and thereby mislead decision-makers. Combining data from a survey of judges and a national population survey, this article provides evidence that i) Chinese judges rely on online public opinion to infer public attitudes toward the death penalty, ii) online information is biased – online opinion is more punitive than the general public opinion, and, iii) biased online information seems to have a strong influence on judges’ perception of strong public support for the death penalty, and this may explain why Chinese scholars, lawyers, and other practitioners have persistently overestimated public punitiveness. The findings reveal a less discussed peril of the internet echo chamber: its misleading effect on the information collection process of the government, especially in autocracies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47202,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Law and Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The internet echo chamber and the misinformation of judges: The case of judges’ perception of public support for the death penalty in China\",\"authors\":\"Zhuang Liu\",\"doi\":\"10.1016/j.irle.2021.106028\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<div><p>In authoritarian regimes, without voting as a channel to gather public preferences, online public expression may become a major type of public opinion the government collects. However, online information can be biased and thereby mislead decision-makers. Combining data from a survey of judges and a national population survey, this article provides evidence that i) Chinese judges rely on online public opinion to infer public attitudes toward the death penalty, ii) online information is biased – online opinion is more punitive than the general public opinion, and, iii) biased online information seems to have a strong influence on judges’ perception of strong public support for the death penalty, and this may explain why Chinese scholars, lawyers, and other practitioners have persistently overestimated public punitiveness. The findings reveal a less discussed peril of the internet echo chamber: its misleading effect on the information collection process of the government, especially in autocracies.</p></div>\",\"PeriodicalId\":47202,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"International Review of Law and Economics\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.9000,\"publicationDate\":\"2022-03-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"3\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"International Review of Law and Economics\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"96\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818821000521\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"社会学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"ECONOMICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Review of Law and Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818821000521","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
The internet echo chamber and the misinformation of judges: The case of judges’ perception of public support for the death penalty in China
In authoritarian regimes, without voting as a channel to gather public preferences, online public expression may become a major type of public opinion the government collects. However, online information can be biased and thereby mislead decision-makers. Combining data from a survey of judges and a national population survey, this article provides evidence that i) Chinese judges rely on online public opinion to infer public attitudes toward the death penalty, ii) online information is biased – online opinion is more punitive than the general public opinion, and, iii) biased online information seems to have a strong influence on judges’ perception of strong public support for the death penalty, and this may explain why Chinese scholars, lawyers, and other practitioners have persistently overestimated public punitiveness. The findings reveal a less discussed peril of the internet echo chamber: its misleading effect on the information collection process of the government, especially in autocracies.
期刊介绍:
The International Review of Law and Economics provides a forum for interdisciplinary research at the interface of law and economics. IRLE is international in scope and audience and particularly welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers on comparative law and economics, globalization and legal harmonization, and the endogenous emergence of legal institutions, in addition to more traditional legal topics.