Mass belief systems & Internal sources of political attitudes

1. Peffley, PS 473 Mass belief systems & Internal sources of political attitudes

2. Clean up!

3. Sex Better Than Money for Happiness • More Money Doesn't Mean More Sex, but More Sex Can Make You Feel Richer By Sid KirchheimerWebMD Health News July 16, 2004 -- Good news for folks whose bedrooms have more activity than their bank accounts: New research shows that sex is better for your happiness than money. • Dartmouth College economist David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England report that sex "enters so strongly (and) positively in happiness equations" that they estimate increasing intercourse from once a month to once a week is equivalent to the amount of happiness generated by getting an additional $50,000 in income for the average American. • "The evidence we see is that money brings some amounts of happiness, but not as much as what economists might have thought," says Blanchflower. "We had to look to psychologists and realize that other things really matter.“ • Their paper, "Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study," recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, essentially puts an estimated dollar amount on the happiness level resulting from sex and its trappings. • Overall, the happiest folks are those getting the most sex -- married people, who report 30% more between-the-sheets action than single folks. In fact, the economists calculate that a lasting marriage equates to happiness generated by getting an extra $100,000 each year. Divorce, meanwhile, translates to a happiness depletion of $66,000 annually. • Whether that hefty happiness income boost is the result of marital bliss or more sex is up for debate. But their "econometric" calculations confirm what psychologists have long known: People who consider themselves happy are usually richer in sexual activity. • Does sex lead to happiness, or are happy people just more likely to lead each other to the bedroom? That's still under investigation, but there is evidence that psyche and sex feed off each other. • Take that study in the May 2001 issue of the Journal of Sex Research, in which Georgia State University researchers found that people who are involuntarily celibate are frequently afflicted with nonhappy feelings -- anger, frustration, self-doubt, and even depression. They conclude it's the result of "missed opportunities" of living without sex.

4. Go to “Consequences of Political Knowledge”

5. Mass belief systems “Ideological innocence” Internal sources of political attitudes

6. Political ideologies • http://typology.people-press.org/typology/

7. Ideological innocence • Political elites & attentive masses use ideologies to talk about politics & organize their political attitudes. However: • Mass public not consistently liberal & conservative across different issue domains • Don’t know the meaning of liberal and conservative • Often have difficulty determining the liberal and conservative sides of political issues

8. Other internal structuring elements:Group identifications, General beliefs, etc. • Group identifications • Partisan identification • Ideological identification • Other group identifications (e.g., racial, ethnic, religious, gender) structure attitudes toward political objects (e.g., candidates, policies) associated with ingroups & outgroups • General beliefs • Values • Worldview • Personality

9. Policy Attitudes and Mass Belief Systems • Political attitudes organized within separate policy domains versus ideologies that cut across policy domains • Specific policy attitudes organized by domain-specific heuristics, such as values, general beliefs and attitudes toward groups associated with the policy.

10. Theoretically, ideologies cut across policy domains, so liberals on foreign policy are also liberal on social & economic policies

11. In Practice: Domain-Specific Opinion Molecules Economic Attitudes Foreign Policy Attitudes Values General Beliefs & Postures Policy Attitudes

12. Characteristics of Political Values • At the individual level: emotional, "easy" heuristics; value priorities predict policy attitudes. • At the societal level: value consensus identifies political culture. • Value structures or hierarchies, value conflict or ambivalence (Rokeach).

13. Economic values and Core beliefs • Individualism, work ethic and beliefs about economic opportunity, values and beliefs that some call the “American Dream,” the belief that: • Success is determined by hard work & • Opportunities for success are available to everyone • i.e., what some call the Horatio Alger myth, the rags to riches story in America

14. Intensity Measures of ValuesE.g., Economic Values: Individualism Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the following statements? • Any person who is willing to work hard has a good chance of succeeding? • Hard work offers little guarantee of success? • Most people who don't get ahead should not blame the system; they really have only themselves to blame? • Even if people are ambitious, they often cannot succeed. If people work hard, they almost always get what they want? • Even if people try hard, they often cannot reach their goals?

15. Economic Values: Egalitarianism

16. Economic Values: Humanitarianism

17. Other Measures of Values: Value Ranking Scales Rokeach’s Value System, Value Hierarchy, 1 to 18 • A comfortable life (a prosperous life) • An exciting life (a stimulating, active life) • A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution) • A world at peace (free of war and conflict) • A world of beauty (beauty of nature and the arts) • Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all) • Family security (taking care of loved ones) • Freedom (independence, free choice) • Happiness (contentedness) • Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict) • Mature love (sexual and spiritual intimacy) • National security (protection from attack) • Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life) • Salvation (saved, eternal life) • Self-respect (self-esteem) • Social recognition (respect, admiration) • True friendship (close companionship) • Wisdom (a mature understanding of life)

18. Rokeach: Values, Value Conflict and Political Culture Hi Freedom Capitalism Socialism Hi Equality Low Equality Communism Fascism Low Freedom

19. Schwartz’s Value System

20. Authoritarianism: Three Phases of Research

21. The Authoritarian Personality • THE PREJUDICED PERSONALITY • INTOLERANT PERSONALITY • UNDEMOCRATIC PERSONALITY

22. Research on authoritarianism • Adorno et al., The Authoritarian Personality (1950) • Psychoanalytic interpretation • Problems with the F-scale: yea-saying, right-wing • Bob Altemeyer, Right-Wing Authoritarianism • Correction for yea-saying (see scale) • Three traits • Authoritarian submission • Authoritarian aggression • Conventionalism

24. Authoritarian responses (Altemeyer) • Common law breakers are seen as a lower form of life which do not deserve fairness and protection under the law • MIRROR IMAGE TRIALS • WILLINGNESS TO JOIN A HYPOTHETICAL POSSE • ACTS OF INTOLERANCE

25. The Two Trials of William Langley: Authoritarian Aggression • Version 1:Langley is leading a pro-gay demonstration to support a law prohibiting discrimination against gays. He incites an attack against counterdemonstrators. What should be his punishment? • Imagine that you are the judge presiding over the trial of Mr. William Langley. Mr. Langley is a 44-year-old civil servant who is also the founder and president of the Winnipeg chapter of Canadians forGay Rights, a noted prohomosexualorganization. A few years ago Mr. Langley was leading a demonstration on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature, supporting a proposed law which would have prohibited discrimination against homosexuals in housing and certain fields of employment. A crowd of approximately 100, mainly members of Mr. Langley's organization, had gathered around his speaker's stand. A large banner which read "GAY POWER" was tied between two columns immediately behind…, a group of about 30 counterdemonstrators appeared and began to walk slowly and silently around the outside of Mr. Langley's audience. They carried signs which read "THE FAMILY IS SACRED" and "NO GAY RIGHTS." …according to several witnesses, Mr. Langley said,…” I say we run them out of here right now. Let's show everybody we mean business." • Version 2:Langley is leading ananti-gay demonstrationto support allowing discrimination against gays. Otherwise the rest of the narrative is the same.

26. The Two Trials of William Langley: Hi RWAs use double standard to punish progay Langley

27. Posse: Authoritarian aggression against communists and the KKK

28. Criticisms of Altemeyer • Local Manitoba samples, usually students • No theory of when authoritarianism is activated • His measure confounds authoritarianism with social conservatism (conventionalism) • Research on Manitoba students’ sexual behavior

29. Social Conformity Versus Autonomy (Feldman, 2003) • Social Conformity Versus Autonomy (Feldman, 2003) Conformity Versus Autonomy A. We should admire people who go their own way without worrying about what others think. B. People need to learn to fit in and get along with others. Freedom Versus Fear of Disorder A. It is most important to give people all the freedom they need to express themselves. B. Our society will break down if we allow people to do or say anything they want. Respect for Common Norms and Values A. Rules are there for people to follow, not to change. B. Society's basic rules were created by people and so can always be changed by people. Social Cohesion A. Society should aim to protect citizens' right to live any way they choose. B. It is important to enforce the community's standards of right and wrong. Socialization and Child-Rearing Values A. The most important values children should learn are obedience and respect for authority. B. The most important values children should learn are independence and self-reliance. Note: Respondents were asked whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the above statements. Survey items were administered randomly.

30. Authoritarianism and Polarization in America Marc J. Hetherington & Jonathan Weiler

31. Putting Polarization in Perspective Hetherington & Weiler, Ch 2

32. Everyone agrees Congress has become polarized since the 1960s

33. Fiorina’s view: Mass polarization is a myth • Moderation. Today as in the past, most Americans are ideological moderates, holding a mixture of liberal and conservative views on different issues. • Partisan Polarization. Partisan polarization is largely an elite phenomenon—i.e., elected officials and activists. • Geographical Polarization. Cultural and political differences between red states and blue states are actually fairly small. (The similarities between voters in these two sets of states are much more striking than the differences.) • Social Cleavages. Divisions within the public based on social characteristics (age, race, gender, and religious affiliation) have been diminishing, not increasing and are smaller than traditional economic divisions between the parties. • Political Turnoff. Growing polarization of party elites and activists turns off large numbers of voters and depresses turnout in elections.

34. Fiorina: Close elections without mass polarization

35. Fiorina’s definition of popular polarization • A wide dispersion of preference between groups moving toward a bimodal distribution, or a clustering of preferences near the poles. • In statistical terms, this rendering requires • 1) a large difference of means (or proportions) between two groups and • 2) large and increasing standard deviations in distributions of interest

36. Fiorina’s critics: What Fiorina’s view misses • Statistical definitions of popular polarization (bi-modal distributions) are hard to find in the real world, especially across average issues and average people. • Types of issues: Statistical definitions do not take into account new issues, issue salience, strong feelings, and an inability or unwillingness to understand contrary points of view (e.g., gay rights, terrorism and the Iraq war) • Types of people: Party sorting looks like polarization among engaged partisans, not just the party elite (activists and politicians)

37. Fiorina’s critics find more polarization on some issues

38. Abramowitz (critic of Fiorina):Ideological polarization

39. Abramowitz (critic of Fiorina):Polarization among Politically Engaged Partisans in 2004

40. Abramowitz (critic of Fiorina):Increasing Religious Polarization among Partisans

41. Abramowitz (critic of Fiorina):Polarization of Red vs. Blue States, 2004

42. Abramowitz (critic of Fiorina):Polarization of Red vs. Blue States, 2004

43. Whither political science & public opinion? Coburn’s claim: Analysts on CNN, Fox News, etc. do the SAME THING as political scientists who study elections.  By Coburn’s logic, we can just go ahead and do away with government funding of medical research too, since CNN’s got Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the case. Coburn, an OB/GYN, claimed his advice to a GOP Senate colleague, John Ensign, who was having a long-term affair with his top aide’s wife (and paid off the husband with campaign funds) was protected by “physician-patient privilege.”

44. Authoritarianism & Non-Authoritarianism: Concepts & Measures Hetherington & Weiler, Ch 3

45. Characteristics of Authoritarianism • AU is fundamentally motivated by a need for order & support for authorities seen as best able to secure that order against a variety of threats to social cohesion. • AU is associated with a belief in Biblical inerrancy • A tendency to rigid thinking and an unwillingness or inability to process new information that might challenge such thinking • AU forms the basis for a worldview, not a personality trait • AU & conservatism aren’t the same thing • Situationism

46. Characteristics of non-authoritarians • Several features are common to non-authoritarians: • a strongly held notion of fairness that manifests itself as outgroup preference; • a tendency toward accuracy motivation; • an aversion to prejudicial thinking, • valuing personal autonomy over social conformity (Feldman) • an aversion to judgments, making them relativistic, • a tendency to be broadly opinionated

47. Hetherington & Weiler’s Ranking measure of authoritarianism (from Feldman and Stenner) Values in Children vs Actual childrearing practices. “I am going to read you pairs of values. Which value is more important for a child to have?” (p. 48) • Independence? or Respect for elders? • Curiosity? or Good manners? • Being considerate or Being well-behaved? • Obedience or Self-Reliance?

48. Construct validity of the measure of AU • Construct validity refers to whether a scale measures or correlates with the theorized psychological construct (e.g., “authoritarianism") that it purports to measure. • AU is correlated with: • Need for cognition (low AU agree) • “I would prefer complex to simple problems.” • “I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking.” • “I have opinions on most things.” • Intelligence (interviewer rating), education, political knowledge • Need for order • “Personally, I tend to think that there is a right way and a wrong way to do almost everything” • “Nothing gets accomplished in this world unless you stick to some basic rules” • Political & social tolerance toward unpopular groups

49. Average Authoritarianism by Relevant Party Coalition Groups (Table 3.2)

50. Would someone in a bar be more attracted to an AU or a non-AU? • Is there still a pejorative element to defining these two groups? Could you define these characteristics in different ways to alter the relative appeal of the two groups?