scholarly journals Immediate rewards or delayed gratification? A conjoint survey experiment of the public’s policy preferences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Serup Christensen ◽  
Lauri Rapeli
Keyword(s):  
Political Trust ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Delayed Gratification ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
Temporal Aspect ◽  
Electoral Cycles ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Previous Scholarship

Abstract Previous scholarship has focused primarily on how citizens’ form policy preferences and how those preferences are taken into account in democratic decision-making. However, the temporal aspect of policy preferences has received little attention, although many significant societal problems have consequences that extend far into the future. To fill the gap, we examine to what extent citizens are willing to support policies, when rewards can only be expected after several electoral cycles. Using a conjoint survey experiment, we demonstrate that while a slight tendency towards more immediate policy rewards is discernible, citizens are not as impatient as has been widely assumed. In contrast with previous research, political trust does not affect the impact of the time horizon of policy choice. Instead, we find that people with higher education are more likely to choose policies the benefits of which materialize in the distant future. These findings add to the growing evidence which suggests that citizens’ short-sightedness is not a very strong driver of democratic myopia.

scholarly journals Crises and social policy preferences: The impact of Covid-19 in Britain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Neundorf ◽  
Sergi Pardos-Prado
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
Unemployment And Health ◽  
The Impact

Do crises substantially change public support for taxes and spending, and why? We leverage the multifaceted character of the Covid-19 pandemic to test different theoretical micro-mechanisms usually confounded in observational research, or tested in isolation. Our randomized survey experiment provides four main findings. First, the economic and health dimensions of the crisis generated a substantial left-wing turn among the British public. Second, the effects are stronger on spending priorities (unemployment and health policies) than on who should pay for the welfare bill (progressivity of income and wealth taxes). Third, economic self-interested motivations are not relevant mechanisms to explain our findings. Fourth, framings associated with open borders and the global spread of the virus polarized welfare attitudes along immigration policy preferences. The generalizability of our findings, the prospects of redistributive conflicts after Covid, and the validity of established theories of welfare preferences in times of crisis are discussed.

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

Asymmetrical Attribution of Performance in China

Asian Survey ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 978-1003
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Chen Chen ◽  
Jun Xiang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Multilevel Mediation ◽  
Dual Pathway ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Impact

Existing studies of the impact of economic development on political trust in China have two major gaps: they fail to explain how economic development contributes to the hierarchical trust pattern, and they do not pay enough attention to the underlying mechanisms. In light of cultural theory and political control theory, we propose adapting performance theory into a theory of “asymmetrical attribution of performance” to better illuminate the case of China. This adapted theory leads to dual pathway theses: expectation fulfillment and local blaming. Using a multilevel mediation model, we show that expectation fulfillment mainly upholds trust in the central government, whereas local blaming undermines trust in local governments. We also uncover a rural–urban distinction in the dual pathway, revealing that both theses are more salient among rural Chinese.

Regaining Control? The Political Impact of Policy Responses to Refugee Crises

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Omer Solodoch
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Sampling Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Immigration And Asylum ◽  
Border Controls ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In response to the political turmoil surrounding the recent refugee crisis, destination countries swiftly implemented new immigration and asylum policies. Are such countercrisis policies effective in mitigating political instability by reducing anti-immigrant backlash and support for radical-right parties? The present study exploits two surveys that were coincidentally fielded during significant policy changes, sampling respondents right before and immediately after the change. I employ a regression discontinuity design to identify the short-term causal effect of the policy change on public opinion within a narrow window of the sampling period. The findings show that both Swedish border controls and the EU–Turkey agreement significantly reduced public opposition to immigration in Sweden and Germany, respectively. In Germany, support for the AfD party also decreased following the new policy. Public opinion time trends suggest that the policy effects were short lived in Sweden but durable in Germany. These effects are similar across different levels of proximity to the border and are accompanied by increasing political trust and a sense of government control over the situation. The findings have implications for understanding the impact of border controls on international public opinion, as well as for assessing the electoral effect of policy responses to global refugee crises.

scholarly journals Does Exposure to the Refugee Crisis Make Natives More Hostile?

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 442-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
DOMINIK HANGARTNER ◽  
ELIAS DINAS ◽  
MORITZ MARBACH ◽  
KONSTANTINOS MATAKOS ◽  
DIMITRIOS XEFTERIS
Keyword(s):  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Direct Exposure ◽  
Exclusionary Policies ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
The Impact

Although Europe has experienced unprecedented numbers of refugee arrivals in recent years, there exists almost no causal evidence regarding the impact of the refugee crisis on natives’ attitudes, policy preferences, and political engagement. We exploit a natural experiment in the Aegean Sea, where Greek islands close to the Turkish coast experienced a sudden and massive increase in refugee arrivals, while similar islands slightly farther away did not. Leveraging a targeted survey of 2,070 island residents and distance to Turkey as an instrument, we find that direct exposure to refugee arrivals induces sizable and lasting increases in natives’ hostility toward refugees, immigrants, and Muslim minorities; support for restrictive asylum and immigration policies; and political engagement to effect such exclusionary policies. Since refugees only passed through these islands, our findings challenge both standard economic and cultural explanations of anti-immigrant sentiment and show that mere exposure suffices in generating lasting increases in hostility.

scholarly journals Institutional Factors Influencing Political Trust in Modern Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 077-093
Author(s):  
Marina Yu. Malkina ◽  
◽  
Vyacheslav N. Ovchinnikov ◽  
Konstantin A. Kholodilin ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Main Determinant ◽  
Redistributive Policy ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Russian President ◽  
The Impact

The aim of this study is to analyze and assess the impact of institutional factors on political trust in various levels of government (federal, regional and local) in modern Russia. Data and methods. The study is based on microdata from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) “Life in Transition Survey” (LiTS). We examined such institutional factors of political trust as perceived government performance and level of corruption, as well as the level of interpersonal trust. The subjective decile of household wealth was an additional explanatory variable in our analysis. We estimated the model parameters using linear regressions with instrumental variables. Results and their application. First, we found that in 2016 the perceived effectiveness of the federal government was the main determinant of Russian trust in the president. At the same time, the perceived level of local corruption was a major factor of Russian citizens’ (mis)trust in local authorities. Second, we found that poor households turned out to be the most loyal groups of the population towards the Russian president, and we explained this phenomenon by the active redistributive policy of the federal authorities. Third, we revealed a significant positive relationship between political and interpersonal trust at the micro level. In conclusion, we made recommendations on the effective management of political trust in modern Russia.

Intervening in Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: The Causal Effects of Factual Information on Attitudes toward Immigration

2021 ◽  
Vol 697 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-191
Author(s):  
Maria Abascal ◽  
Tiffany J. Huang ◽  
Van C. Tran
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Social Cognitions ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Factual Information ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Contrast Information ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigration

If preferences on immigration policy respond to facts, widespread misinformation poses an obstacle to consensus. Does factual information about immigration indeed affect policy preferences? Are beliefs about immigration’s societal impact the mechanism through which factual information affects support for increased immigration? To address these questions, we conducted an original survey experiment, in which we presented a nationally representative sample of 2,049 Americans living in the United States with facts about immigrants’ English acquisition and immigrants’ impact on crime, jobs, and taxes—four domains with common misperceptions. Three of these factual domains (immigration’s impact on crime, jobs, and taxes) raise overall support for increased immigration. These facts also affect beliefs that are directly relevant to that information. Moreover, those beliefs mediate the effect of factual information on support for increased immigration. By contrast, information about English acquisition affects neither policy preferences nor beliefs about immigration’s impact. Facts can leverage social cognitions to change policy preferences.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document