Presenting both sides of an issue is considered a feature of good journalism. However, false balance can result when equal platform is given to opposing views despite one view holding expert and evidentiary support. In three experiments, we examined whether exposure to non-consensus contrarian views, on their own and in falsely balanced presentations, would affect perceptions of expert consensus and personal belief in climate change. Exposure to contrarian views reduced perceived expert consensus, even when paired with a consensus view, and regardless of the expertise of the contrarian source. However, participants who subsequently read a weight-of-evidence statement, despite reading contrarian arguments, showed no such reductions and even beneficial increases in their beliefs and perceptions. Although contrarian claims problematically inform people’s understandings of issues by making them seem more contentious than they actually are, statements about the broader consensus of experts can encourage perceptions and understandings in line with empirical evidence.

呈现一个问题的两面被认为是优秀新闻的一个特征。然而，假平衡尽管一种观点得到专家和证据的支持，但如果对相反的观点给予平等的平台，则可能会产生这种结果。在三个实验中，我们研究了暴露于非共识的逆向观点本身和错误平衡的陈述是否会影响专家共识的看法和个人对气候变化的信念。暴露于逆向观点会减少感知到的专家共识，即使与共识观点配对，也不管逆向来源的专业知识。然而，随后阅读证据权重声明的参与者，尽管阅读了相反的论点，但他们的信念和看法没有出现这种减少甚至有益的增加。尽管逆势主张使人们对问题的理解看起来比实际情况更具争议性，从而产生了问题，