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People see what they want to see: an EEG study

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Abstract

This study explored selective exposure and confirmation bias in the choices participants made about which political videos to watch, and whether their political positions changed after they watched videos that either agreed with or opposed their positions on two controversial issues in South Korea: North Korea policy and social welfare policy. The participants completed questionnaires before and after they watched the videos, were asked to select thumbnails of videos before they watched any, and had their brain wave activity measured through electroencephalogram (EEG) as they watched both types of videos. The participants demonstrated selective exposure as they primarily selected video thumbnails with content that matched their political orientations, and they demonstrated confirmation bias as their questionnaire responses after they watched the videos indicated that their positions had hardened. There were also statistically significant differences in alpha, beta, sensory motor rhythm, low beta, mid beta, and fast alpha activity depending on the political orientation consistency between the participants and the videos. Future studies could expand this line of research beyond college students and beyond Asia, and longitudinal work could also be conducted to determine if the obtained patterns remain constant over time.

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Data Availability

Raw Data were generated at Sungkyunkwan University. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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  1. Department of Media and Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

    Heeseung Yu & Eunkyoung Han

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  1. Heeseung Yu
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Correspondence to Eunkyoung Han.

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Yu, H., Han, E. People see what they want to see: an EEG study. Cogn Neurodyn 18, 1167–1181 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-023-09982-8

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