摘要：Exemplification research has consistently shown that after reading news reports including individual cases; people tend to base their judgments on these so-called exemplars. Until today; it is not entirely clear why exemplars are so powerful in shaping recipients’ perception of public opinion and why they sometimes fail to influence personal opinion. Based on prior research; we assume that the influence of exemplars on both types of judgments is due to similarity effects: While similarity between recipients and exemplars should moderate effects on recipients’ personal opinion; the similarity between exemplars and “the public” should be responsible for effects on the perceived public opinion. Conducting a 2x2x2-web-based experiment; we find that the similarity between exemplars and the target population influences public opinion estimates; we find only partial support for an effect of similarity between exemplars and recipients on personal opinion.
关键词：Exemplification; public opinion perception; similarity; opinion formation
