ABSTRACT
Unfortunately, we have seen many tense verbal altercations between the Korean and Japanese governments. How do those arguments affect people's perceptions of their own government or that of the opposing country? In this study, we aim to reveal the consequences of actual altercations over an incident related to the two countries' navies in December 2018 by utilizing three online surveys—one immediately after the incident, one several weeks later, and the third after two months. We show how the cross-border verbal attacks over an invisible crisis affected people's perceptions of their own and the opposing government. Our evidence shows that as time passed, members of the general public confirm their information, in particular, information that is positive about their own government (Japan) and negative about the other (Korea). Over the course of the crisis, Japanese people tended to consider the Korean government less trustworthy and believed it was hiding something. As time passed, more people tended to believe their own government's statements.
