「他們看見了抗議」（上）──認知反自由主義和言論／行為區分／Dan M. Kahan、David A. Hoffman、Donald Braman、Danieli Evans、Jeffrey J. Rachlinski（譯文）

“They Saw a Protest”: Cognitive Illiberalism and the Speech-Conduct Distinction

文化性認知是個人之團體認同對其認知法律上重要事實的潛意識影響。本文以實驗方法評估文化認知對事實認知的影響，此事實關乎區辨「言論」（受憲法保護）與「行為」（不受憲法保護）。受試者觀看政治示威的影片：半數相信示威者在墮胎診所外抗議墮胎；另一半在軍方招募中心外抗議軍方「不問也不說」的政策。相反文化觀的受試者，若分配到相同的實驗條件（因此對抗議本質的認知相同），對關鍵的「事實」有很不同的看法—包括抗議者是否妨礙或威脅路人。當受試者有同樣文化觀，但被分配到不同的實驗條件（因此對抗議本質的認知不同），對關鍵的「事實」也有很不同的看法。此實證發現支持了研究假設，即文化性認知影響了對言論與行為分野的觀感。本文最後討論研究結果對憲法學與自治的自由主義原則的重要性。

“Cultural cognition” refers to the unconscious influence of individuals’ group commitments on their perceptions of legally consequential facts. We conducted an experiment to assess the impact of cultural cognition on perceptions of facts relevant to distinguishing constitutionally protected “speech” from unprotected “conduct.” Study subjects viewed a video of a political demonstration. Half the subjects believed that the demonstrators were protesting abortion outside of an abortion clinic, and the other half that the demonstrators were protesting the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy outside a military recruitment center. Subjects of opposing cultural outlooks who were assigned to the same experimental condition (and thus had the same belief about the nature of the protest) disagreed sharply on key “facts”— including whether the protestors obstructed and threatened pedestrians. Subjects also disagreed sharply with those who shared their cultural outlooks but who were assigned to the opposing experimental condition (and hence had a different belief about the nature of the protest). These results supported the study hypotheses about how cultural cognition would affect perceptions pertinent to the speech-conduct distinction. We discuss the significance of the results for constitutional law and liberal principles of self-governance generally.