PS 320 Exam 2

Negative advertising, positive and negative

negative effects: -Negative ads reduce trust in government -Negative ads reduce political efficacy -Negative ads decrease turnout by ~ 2% -Negative ads increase voter roll-off by ~ 1.2% -80% of citizens say negative advertising is unethical and does damage to our democratic system positive effects: • Country was founded through political attack, e.g. Declaration • Country survived early negative campaigns • Threat of criticism provides politicians incentive to adopt sound policies, attract votes • Criticism can increase information quality for voters • inform people about consequences of making the "wrong" choice • citizens in battleground states have higher political interest • citizens in battleground states are more politically informed • Negativity makes accountability possible

Media Effects (agenda setting, priming, framing, persuasion)

• Agenda Setting- volume of coverage devoted to an issue suggests the importance of that issue • Framing- changes in judgment produced by changes in the presentation of the choice problem • Priming- ability of a message to affect the criteria individuals use to evaluate political figures • Persuasion- genuine attitude change

Extroversion and their relationship to ideology and participation

*active and energetic *sociable and outgoing

Conscientiousness and their relationship to ideology and participation

*engage in socially prescribed impulse control *appreciate rules and norms -the quality of wishing to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly.

Agreeableness and their relationship to ideology and participation

*kind and communal *not antagonistic toward others

openness to new experience and their relationship to ideology and participation

*respond positively to a wide range of experiences *appreciate complexity and novelty

Emotional stability (or neuroticism) and their relationship to ideology and participation

*steady and resilient *not nervous or anxious

the California F-scale

-A series of 38 questions was designed to measure individuals' anti-democratic potential, that is, their susceptibility to anti- democratic propaganda. -Responses to these questions were used to construct a Fascism (F) scale. -By creating this scale, Adorno et al. hoped they could identify the correlates of the "fascist personality," which might help society prevent its spread.

Gray's Model of Emotionality, Dual Systems of Emotional Arousal, BIS, BAS

-British neuropsychologist, Jeffrey Gray, has proposed a model of emotionality that rests on the functioning of specific brain systems. -The limbic system as signs emotional significance to sensory information and plays an important interpretative function in learning. -It has three subsystems: - 1. Fight-Flight System - 2. Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) - 3. Behavioral Approach System (BAS) -BIS and BAS: Dual Systems of Emotional Response - Two systems efficiently balance allocation of mental and physical resources - Two systems facilitate strategic sensory evaluation and direction of motivation - Two systems enhance the efficiency of information processing

Heuristics

-Citizens compensate for their limited information about politics by using judgmental heuristics. -Heuristics: judgmental shortcuts(e.g.partisanship), efficient ways to organize and simplify policy choices - require little information to execute - yield dependable answers to complex policy choices -Heuristics have been described as "rules of thumb for judgment" (Kunda 1999). -Heuristics allow people to be knowledgeable in their reasoning without necessarily possessing a large body of political information.

rebound effects

-Conscious effort to suppress stereotypes may actually make us more likely to later use them. -Trying to suppress a stereotype requires us to think about the stereotype, which, in turn, may increase the accessibility of that stereotype. - examples: sexism, racism

Components of the California F-scale

-Conventionalism: rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class values. -Authoritarian Submission: submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealized authorities of the in group. -Authoritarian Aggression: tendency to be on the lookout for, and to condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional values. -Anti-Intraception: opposition to the subjective, the imaginative, the tender-minded. -Superstition and Stereotypy:belief in the mystical determinants of individual's fate; disposition to think in rigid categories • Power and "Toughness": preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension; identification with power figures; exaggerated assertion of strength and toughness. • Destructiveness and Cynicism: generalized hostility, vilification of the human. • Projectivity: disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world; projection outwards of unconscious emotional impulses. • Sex: exaggerated concern with sexual "goings-on"

Affect and Democratic Theory

-Democratic theorists presume that "good" judgments require deliberation (i.e. cognitive thought) -Emotions are seen as normatively inferior to rationality - Emotions are incompatible with clear thinking and good decisions (Janis 1982) - Justice is best understood devoid of emotional influence (Rawls 1971) - Being emotional about politics is associated with psychological distraction, distortion, extremity, and unreasonableness -Hamilton warns that the passions of men won't conform to reason and justice without constraints. We thus need institutions, rules, and procedures to protect us from our emotional selves. -Western thought has historically seen passion (affect) as antithetical to reason (cognition).

Dual process models

-Dual-process models have been applied to a wide range of areas in psychology, including attitudes, stereotyping, person perception, judgment, and decision making. -Most dual-process models assume that there are two qualitatively different modes of information processing at work in individuals' judgments. - fast, associative information-processing mode based on low- effort heuristics vs. a slow, rule-based information-processing mode based on high-effort systematic reasoning - affective vs. cognitive, uncontrolled vs. controlled, heuristic vs. systematic, unconscious vs. conscious, theory driven vs. data driven • Processing modes are believed to exist on a continuum within all individuals.

childhood socialization

-Easton and Dennis(1969) argue that, when using a broader definition of politics, political socialization does begin in childhood. -Most work on political socialization focuses on only one type of political interaction, namely allocative (or partisan) politics, the controversial, competitive areas of political life -While children do in fact know very little about allocative politics, they know a great deal about system politics; that is, institutions and people - Institutions: government, Washington - People: president, policemen

Barber's assumptions of presidential character

-First, a president's personality is an important shaper of his presidential behavior on nontrivial matters. -Second, presidential personality is patterned. His character,world view, and style fit together in a dynamic package understandable in psychological terms. -Third, a president's personality interacts with the power situation he faces and the national "climate of expectations" dominant at the time he serves. The tuning, the resonance—or lack of it—between these external factors and his personality sets in motion the dynamic of his presidency. -Fourth, the best way to predict a president's character, world view, and style is to see how they were put together in the first place. That happened in his early life, culminating in his first independent political success.

Hypodermic needle model

-Model of communication developed in the 1930s -Assumes a passive audience in which messages are directly received and accepted by citizens -Assumes messages are injected like a drug -Assumes citizens unable to resist messages -Assumes no individual differences in receptivity

minimal effects model

-Model of communication developed in the 1940s and 1950s -Assumes an active audience in which citizens receive or reject messages based on their existing attitudes -Assumes that "impersonal" media messages are less influential than personal messages from friends and family -Assumes individual differences in receptivity -Finds little evidence of media conversion or persuasion

Conditions Needed to Suppress Stereotypes

-People must be aware of the potential influence of the stereotype. -People must have the available cognitive resources to initiate controlled processing. -People must be sufficiently motivated to initiate some strategy to override stereotypic responses.

Purpose of political socialization

-Political systems are systems of behavior through which society is able to make decisions that most people accept as authoritative or binding most of the time. -Political systems, like individuals, have a strong interest in preserving themselves. -The persistence of a political system may in part depend upon the success of a society in producing children most of whom acquire positive feelings about it.

The "Active-Negative" Character

-The contradiction here is between relatively intense effort and relatively low emotional reward for that effort. -The activity has a compulsive quality, as if the [president] were trying to make up for something or to escape from anxiety into hard work...Life is a hard struggle to achieve and hold power, hampered by the condemnations of a perfectionistic conscience. -Active-negative types pour energy into the political system but display a recurrent, negative emotional reaction to their work. -High activity, low enjoyment

The "Active-Positive" Character

-There is a congruence, a consistency, between being very active and the enjoyment of it, indicating relatively high self-esteem and relative success in relating to the environment. -There is an orientation toward productiveness as a value and an ability to use styles flexibly and adaptively. -There is an emphasis on rational mastery. -High activity, high enjoyment

The "Passive-Positive" Character

-This is the receptive, compliant, other-directed character whose life is a search for affection as a reward for being agreeable and cooperative rather than personally assertive. -The contradiction is between low self-esteem and a superficial optimism. -Passive-positive types often soften the harsh edges of politics. -But their dependence and the fragility of their hopes and enjoyments make disappointment in politics likely. -Low activity, high enjoyment

Stereotype suppression

-What happens when multiple stereotypes might be activated? Macrae et al. (1995) argue that people may suppress the less dominant of the two to avoid distractions and interference. -Race Trumps Gender - Subjects who see a Chinese woman eating a bowl of noodles with chopsticks have their "Chinese" stereotype activated. -Gender Trumps Race - Subjects who see a Chinese woman putting on makeup have their "women" stereotype activated.

Description of the socialization process

-While socialization in general begins in early childhood, conventional wisdom has been that political socialization does not begin until early adolescence and young adulthood. -Prepolitical Personality Theory: rejects the idea of pre- adolescent political learning, argues that kids simply develop personalities which may later shape the acquisition of political information -Proximity Theory: accepts the idea of pre-adolescent learning, but argues that whatever is learned in childhood is overshadowed by political learning experiences that occur closer to adulthood -State of Readiness Theory: argues that children are not intellectually ready for political learning

The "Passive-Negative" Character

-Why is someone who does little in politics and enjoys it less there at all? -The answer lies in the passive- negative's character-rooted orientation toward doing a dutiful service; this compensates for low self-esteem based on a sense of uselessness. -Passive-negative types are in politics because they think they ought to be. -Their tendency is to withdraw, to escape from the conflict and uncertainty of politics by emphasizing vague principles and procedural arrangements. -They become guardians of the right and proper way, above the sordid politicking of lesser men. -Low activity, low enjoyment

Big 5 Personality Traits

1. openness to new experience 2. Conscientiousness 3. Extroversion 4. Agreeableness 5. Emotional stability (or neuroticism)

agents of political socialization

The Family • Schools • Peers - Friends - Coworkers • Political Leaders • Mass Media • Churches

Explain differences between competing models of change

• Continuity: generations remain the same over time, absolutely and relative to each other • Generational Effects: generations are apart at time t and remain so at time t + 1 • Life Cycle Effects: younger generation converges with older as it ages, generational gap is narrower at time t + 1 than at time t • Period Effects: generations begin the same and move together over time

The Suppression of Stereotypes

• Devine and Monteith (1999) suggest that people can try to suppress stereotype activation. - People can override the influence of an activated stereotype with responses based on controlled processing. - People can stop or interrupt stereotype activation once it has started in order to avoid a stereotypic response. - People can try to avoid prejudiced responses by preventing stereotype activation in the first place. - People can resist by gathering additional information.

Pathologies of Passion

• Displacement Pathology - emotion overstimulates the individual, distorts judgments, and displaces reason - affect leads to impulsiveness and inconsiderate judgment • Distraction Pathology - emotional symbols distract the mind; emotional appeals may draw attention to personality over policy • Intransigence Pathology - emotionally charged stimuli can lead to extremity, rigidity, and an unwillingness to compromise • Self-absorption Pathology - emotionally aroused individuals are more likely to act out of primordial self-preservation and self-interest

preconditions of political socialization

• Exposure: "learners" must come in to contact with "teachers" for socialization to take place • Communication: information must be exchanged, some cues are more politically relevant than others • Receptivity: willingness to listen - nature of the relationship between source and receiver - timing of the communication matters too

consequences of polarized political trust

• Foreign Policy Preferences • Economic Policy Preferences • Health Care Policy Preferences • Political Dysfunction and Gridlock

Non-Institutional Causes of elite polarization

• Generational replacement of representatives and senators • Increase in party switching • Increase in party sorting • Redistricting • Proliferation of interest groups

Polarization in the mass public

• Jacobson (2010) finds evidence of polarization in the public's attitudes toward President Bush and the Iraq War. (preferences) • Abramowitz (2010) finds evidence of a stronger correlation between party identification and ideological identification. (ideology) The Mass Public is Not Ideologically Polarized • Fiorina (2006) argues that the public is not ideologically polarized • closely divided does not equal deeply divided • party sorting does not equal party polarization • issue preferences are not truly "polarized"

Sources of polarized political trust

• Political trust has polarized along partisan lines • increasingly cold feelings toward the other party • motivated reasoning: biased perceptions of government performance • motivated reasoning: biased weighting of evaluation criteria

Moderators of framing effects

• Predispositions - People are less susceptible to emphasis framing effects if the frame contradicts their predispositions. Frames don't work automatically, they are evaluated in light of individuals' existing predispositions. - Example: Gross (2000) finds that people with unprejudiced predispositions rejected "dispositional" frames about the 1992 LA riots, i.e. they gave more liberal responses that those in "situational" frames. • CitizenDeliberation - Deliberation can vitiate framing effects. - Example: On the issue of mayoral control of schools, Price and Na (2000) find that citizens who participated in a deliberation forum were less susceptible to framing effects. • Political Information - Some argue that emphasis framing effects should be greatest among the unsophisticated. Sophisticated respondents are expected to possess their own frames and be able to potentially counterargue elite frames. - Example: On this issue of affirmative action, Kinder and Sanders (1990) find that unsophisticated respondents are more susceptible to framing effects. - Others argue that emphasis framing effects should be greatest among the sophisticated. They suggest that framing works because it encourages people to weight certain considerations rather than others. But only sophisticated respondents are expected to have multiple considerations stored in memory. - Example: On the issue of welfare, Nelson, Oxley, and Clawson (1997) find that framing effects are larger among those most familiar with competing welfare arguments. • Source Credibility - Emphasis framing effects should be greater when the audience believes the source is credible, trustworthy. - Example: On the issue of Klan rallies (free speech vs. public safety), Druckman (2001) finds that source credibility determines strength of framing effects. • FrameCompetition - In the real world, people are rarely exposed to only one frame on an issue. Exposure to competing frames might eliminate emphasis framing effects. - Example: Sniderman and Theriault (1999) find that framing effects are smaller among those who read "free speech" and "public safety" frames rather than just one of them.

Correlates of RWA

• Punishment of law breakers • Acceptance of government injustices • Ethnocentrism • Adherence to traditional sex roles • Hostility toward homosexuals • Conformity to group norms • Demographics - no gender differences - declines with education - alumni study: biggest agent of change over time?

Right Wing Authoritarianism and its attitudinal clusters

• RWA is the constellation of three attitudinal clusters in an individual: • Authoritarian Submission: high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives • Authoritarian Aggression: a general aggressiveness, directed against various persons, that is perceived to be sanctioned by established authorities • Conventionalism: a high degree of adherence to the social conventions that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities

Cultural Causes of Elite Polarization

• Shortened work week • Decrease in "political junkets" • Income inequality • Narrow congressional majorities • Rise of partisan media

Institutional Causes of Elite Polarization

• Strengthening of party rules and party discipline • Rise of omnibus(a volume containing several novels or other items previously published separately) legislation • Deviations from seniority system

Consequences of authoritarianism

• Submissiveness to authority • Desire for a strong leader • General hostility and cynicism toward people • Strict adherence to convention • Punish those who defy convention

Barber's typology of presidential character (AP, AN, PP, PN)

• Two dimensions of presidential character - activity level (active/passive) - enjoyment level (positive/negative) • Four types of presidential character - Active-Positive(AP) - Active-Negative(AN) - Passive-Positive(PP) - Passive-Negative(PN)