Misinformed policy-makers?

We talked today about how the most informed Americans are also the most likely to hold factually incorrect beliefs, because the information they gather reinforces their beliefs. While the authors from this week's readings suggest that this misinformation can influence public policy, I wonder if this misinformation is as much of a problem in actual legislative bodies, particularly Congress.

Because the nature of political discourse in the everyday life of the average American is so different from that of a politician, the "information environment" (Jerit and Barabas 278) must also be different. In the former, Americans usually encounter and discuss their findings (if they discuss them at all, that is) with people like them, who they assume will support their views. In a legislature, however, politicians are forced to hear out the viewpoints of their opponents. This difference in environment for the policy-maker provides a huge incentive to be have factually correct knowledge, because if they don't, the other side will surely set the record straight, to the humiliation and political detriment of the "misinformer." Perhaps then, if the negative consequences for misinformed citizens are low--whether that misinformation is mainstream or more "radical"--it would seem to be very high for legislators.

For the politicians who are not part of the legislature, however, there isn't as clear of an incentive to know the correct facts. These politicians are not forced to encounter opponents as often, because they often have the ability to surround themselves with people of similar political ideologies. They are not in "crisis-mode" as Logan put it in class, because they do not have to compete for political efficacy as blatantly or as often as legislators.

I think it would be interesting to re-do the experiments we read about for this week with actual politicians instead of average Americans. I would find it particularly interesting to see if or how the results differ across the different branches of government. Perhaps if our policy-makers are not as misinformed as the general public, despite their (hopefully) high level of information, we can rest a little easier.