Are Religious People More Compassionate and Does This Matter Politically?

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 618-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Blouin ◽  
Robert V. Robinson ◽  
Brian Starks
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Government Assistance ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
Service Attendance

AbstractAnalyzing a unique module of the General Social Survey, we test hypotheses that three religion dimensions — affiliation with specific religious traditions (belonging), service attendance (behaving), and religious orthodoxy (believing) are associated with compassionate feelings, and that these feelings carry over into support for government efforts to help the poor, blacks, and the sick. The religiously orthodox report more compassionate feelings toward others than do modernists and, partly because of this, are more supportive of government intervention to help the poor. Yet attending religious services frequently does not increase compassionate feelings and makes people less supportive of government efforts to help the poor. There are no differences among religious traditions in compassionate feelings, and the only difference on economic policy preferences is for Black Protestants to support government assistance to blacks. Compassionate feelings have comparable effects to political ideology and party identification on support for government assistance to the disadvantaged and misfortunate. We conclude that people of faith, variously defined, do not constitute a monolithic “Religious Right” and are potentially open to policy appeals from both political parties.

scholarly journals Polarization of public trust in scientists between 1978 and 2018

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Nan Li ◽  
Yachao Qian
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Science And Politics

Abstract The U.S. public’s trust in scientists reached a new high in 2019 despite the collision of science and politics witnessed by the country. This study examines the cross-decade shift in public trust in scientists by analyzing General Social Survey data (1978–2018) using interpretable machine learning algorithms. The results suggest a polarization of public trust as political ideology made an increasingly important contribution to predicting trust over time. Compared with previous decades, many conservatives started to lose trust in scientists completely between 2008 and 2018. Although the marginal importance of political ideology in contributing to trust was greater than that of party identification, it was secondary to that of education and race in 2018. We discuss the practical implications and lessons learned from using machine learning algorithms to examine public opinion trends.

scholarly journals Visualizing Partisan Identification Switching in the General Social Survey Panel, 2016–2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110573
Author(s):  
Sean Bock ◽  
Landon Schnabel
Keyword(s):  
Party Identification ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Party Realignment ◽  
Independent Variable ◽  
Partisan Identification

This visualization captures shifts in partisan identification in the 2016–2020 General Social Survey Panel. Although most partisans remained stable in their identifications, a significant proportion of respondents either shifted to the opposing party or became independents. These patterns have important implications for our understanding of recent party realignment, trends in partisanship, and the care needed when using party identification as an independent variable.

Is the Religious Left Resurgent?

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph O Baker ◽  
Gerardo Martí
Keyword(s):  
General Social Survey ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Conservative Christian ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Religious Left

Abstract Journalistic sources seem to suggest that there has been a resurgence of the American Religious Left (i.e., politically liberal Christians who support progressive agendas) in the wake of the strong support from the conservative Christian right in the 2016 presidential election of Donald J. Trump. Using quantitative analysis, we draw on survey data from the General Social Survey, the Public Religion Research Institute, and the National Congregations Study to assess the possibility of a resurgence among the Religious Left. In comparison with a speculated rise, our analysis indicates a notable decline in both the prevalence and engagement of Americans who self-identify as both religious and politically liberal. Not only is the constituency of the Religious Left shrinking, they have also been steadily disengaging from political activity in the last decade. Especially when looking at more recent elections, it has been those among the Secular Left who have been the most politically engaged. We summarize these empirical patterns in relation to the Religious Right and consider the potential for influence among the Religious Left aside from electoral politics. We also briefly consider other possibilities for their political impact and reflect on the inadequacy of the label “Religious Left” for capturing important dynamics. In the end, we urge greater attention to politics among sociologists of religion, providing a set of research questions to consider in light of the upcoming American 2020 national election.

Doing It for the Kids? The Determinants of Attitudes towards Public Childcare in Unified Germany

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
ACHIM GOERRES ◽  
MARKUS TEPE
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractIn order to explain why people differ in their attitudes towards public childcare, we present a theoretical framework that integrates four causal mechanisms: regime socialisation, political ideology, family involvement and material self-interest. Estimation results obtained from multivariate regressions on the 2002 German General Social Survey and replications on the 2008/9 European Social Survey can be condensed into three statements: (1) Regime socialisation is the single most important determinant of attitudes toward public childcare, followed by young age as an indicator of self-interest and political ideology. Family involvement does not have any sizeable impact. (2) Regime socialisation conditions the impact of some indicators of political ideology and family involvement on attitudes toward public childcare. (3) Despite a paradigmatic shift in policy, the dynamics of 2008 mirror those of 2002, highlighting the stability of inter-individual differences in support. The results suggest that the ‘shadow of communism’ still stretches over what people in the East expect from the welfare state and that individual difference in the demand for public childcare appears to be highly path-dependent.

Party Identification and Public Spending Priorities in the American Electorate

1982 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lowery ◽  
Lee Sigelman
Keyword(s):  
Party Identification ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Classification Analysis ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Multiple Classification Analysis ◽  
Multiple Classification

In a study published in 1980, Alan Lewis found that members of the British mass public tend to have clearly defined preferences on spending in specific policy areas and that these preferences are closely related to party identification. This paper examines Lewis's conclusion in the American setting. Data on eleven spending policies from the 1973 and 1980 General Social Survey are examined via factor analysis and multiple classification analysis. While some change is observed between 1973 and 1980, the preferences of the American public on public expenditures appear to be quite stable and, contrary to Lewis's findings these preferences are unrelated to party identification.

scholarly journals Politics and the Perceived Boundaries of Science: Activism, Sociology, and Scientific Legitimacy

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311876954
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Scheitle
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Scientific Legitimacy ◽  
Political Conservatism

Research has suggested that public confidence in the scientific community has become politicized, but it is not clear that liberals and conservatives disagree on the more fundamental question of what counts as being scientific. An analysis of General Social Survey data finds that political conservatism is negatively associated with an individual’s rating of sociology as being scientific. This association is not found when examining ratings of economics or biology. Education moderates this association, as the gap between liberals’ and conservatives’ ratings of sociology’s scientific-ness is greater among those with more education. Although research has demonstrated that trust in the scientific community has become politicized, these findings demonstrate that the perceived boundaries of science can also be influenced by political ideology.

Pluralistic Collapse: The “Oil Spill” Model of Mass Opinion Polarization

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel DellaPosta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Political Alignments ◽  
Mass Opinion

Despite widespread feeling that public opinion in the United States has become dramatically polarized along political lines, empirical support for such a pattern is surprisingly elusive. Reporting little evidence of mass polarization, previous studies assume polarization is evidenced via the amplification of existing political alignments. This article considers a different pathway: polarization occurring via social, cultural, and political alignments coming to encompass an increasingly diverse array of opinions and attitudes. The study uses 44 years of data from the General Social Survey representing opinions and attitudes across a wide array of domains as elements in an evolving belief network. Analyses of this network produce evidence that mass polarization has increased via a process of belief consolidation, entailing the collapse of previously cross-cutting alignments, thus creating increasingly broad and encompassing clusters organized around cohesive packages of beliefs. Further, the increasing salience of political ideology and partisanship only partly explains this trend. The structure of U.S. opinion has shifted in ways suggesting troubling implications for proponents of political and social pluralism.

scholarly journals Mental illness and the left

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Mental Disability ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Potential Link ◽  
The Difference

It has been claimed that left-wingers or liberals (US sense) tend to be more mentally ill than right-wingers or conservatives. This potential link was investigated using the General Social Survey. A search found 5 items measuring one's own mental illness in different ways (e.g.”Do you have any emotional or mental disability?”). All of these items were associated with left-wing political ideology as measured by self-report. These results held up mostly in regressions that adjusted for age, sex, and race. For the variable with the most data, the difference in mental illness between “extremely liberal” and “extremely conservative” was 0.39 d. This finding is congruent with numerous findings based on related constructs.

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