This study examined the effects of the third-person perception on the legal action intention and regulatory attitudes of the victim of defamation reporting based on the theory of the third-person effects dealing with the biased perception problem of media influence. Apart from the third-person perception, the effects of the influence of the perceived subjects on behavioral intentions and attitudes mentioned above was also analyzed.
A total of 441 adults nationwide participated in the survey. This study divided participants into two groups, each reading a virtual defamation report treated with truth and fraud, and then assuming themselves as victims, and estimated influence of the report on themselves and others, and measured legal action intentions and regulatory attitudes.
The results showed that respondents expressed the third-person perception that the defamation report had greater influence on "familiar acquaintances," "familiar acquaintances" and "general other" than their influence on themselves. However, the social distance variable with the perceived object did not have a consistent effect on the increase of the third-person perception, and the truth of the report set as the social desirable variable also did not cause any significant difference to the third-person perception.
The third-person perception was found to have a significant positive effect on the willingness to apply for mediation. It has a significant negative effect on the attitude to support the existence of defamation and a positive effect on the attitude to support the introduction of punitive damages system for defamation reports. The moderating effect of the truth of the report between the third-person perception, legal action intent and regulatory attitude was found only in the intention to mediate.
As a result of analyzing the influence of perception targets on legal action intention and regulatory attitude, 'influence on oneself', 'influence on vague acquaintance' and 'influence on general others' are have a significant positive effect in intention to apply for mediation among legal action intention. All the influences were not significant on the intention of litigation, and only 'influence on close acquaintances' had a positive influence on the criminal charge intent. Among the attitudes of regulation, 'influence on oneself' has a significant negative influence on attitudes that support factual defamation, and 'influence on vague acquaintances' on attitudes supporting the introduction of punitive damages system. It has been shown to have a positive effect.
This study takes into account the situation of actual victims that previous studies dealing with the third-person effects of defamation reports have identified participants as a third party far removed from the news contents. As such, it is meaningful to explore the third-person perception in the high involvement environment and its effects on behavioral intentions and regulatory attitudes. In addition, this study complements the limitations of previous studies focused on perceptual elements of the third-person effects on defamation reports, and extends the subject of discussions to the effects of the third-person perception on the various legal action and the regulatory attitudes.