According to one large study, Democrats and Republicans have significant misperceptions of the composition of the other party. For example, Democrats guess on average that 44% of Republicans make $250k or more, and 43% are 65 or older. (The actual numbers are 2% and 21%, respectively.) And Republicans guess on average that 36% of Democrats are atheists or agnostics, and 38% are LGBT. (The actual numbers are 9% and 6% respectively.) The study also found that people who consumed the most news media had far more skewed perceptions than those who consumed the least. Explain how the news media’s incentive to cater to news consumers may create these skewed perceptions, even if all the news reports themselves are entirely accurate. Write a paragraph using the concepts of ‘Selection effect’, ‘Availability heuristic’, and ‘Representativeness heuristic’ in your explanation.
