Linked Fate and Economic Optimism

2021 ◽  
pp. 88-112
Author(s):  
Michael J. Donnelly
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Ethnic Inequality ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Group I ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Past Experiences

In this chapter, I examine a key step of heuristic theory. That step is the perception in a person’s mind that her fate is linked to that of a larger group. I review some previous work on linked fate, and argue that it is a useful concept for understanding a wide range of countries and groups. I report results from a survey of Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Ethnic inequality and regional inequality provide good reason for believing that group members’ interests are tied together, and I show that many individual demographics do not do a good job of predicting who feels linked fate, while group-level variation, especially past experiences of discrimination, do shape linked fate. One key individual level variable that does predict linked fate is regional identity, which raises the salience of the regional cleavage.

Within-Group Inequality, Prediction, and the Value of Heuristics

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-146
Author(s):  
Michael J. Donnelly
Keyword(s):  
Regional Identity ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Group Variation ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Lower Correlation ◽  
Group Inequality

In this chapter, I argue that groups with greater within-group variation in income are less useful as predictors of future incomes for group members. This implies that members of groups with higher levels of within-group inequality should express lower levels of linked fate and display a lower correlation between the mean group income and attitudes toward redistribution. I test this argument by examining a survey of Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, followed by a global sample from the World Values Survey. I close by returning to the three-country survey to show that within-region inequality does not seem to reduce regional identity.

Material Interests, Identity and Linked Fate in Three Countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Donnelly
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Market Uncertainty ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Material Interests

Abstract This article examines the theoretical connections between identity and linked fate, extending the latter concept across three countries and four types of (potential) identity groups. This belief, that what happens to one's ethnic group, religious group, region, or class shapes one's own life chances, is an understudied middle ground between ideational and material drivers of political attitudes. The study uses experimental and observational analyses to show that the strength of individuals' beliefs in linked fate and that belief's consequences vary in systematic and predictable ways. From the very material effect of labor market uncertainty to the highly ideational effect of regional identity, linked fate is a cognitive bridge between two very different kinds of social–psychological experiences that can (and should) be applied across a wide range of countries and groups.

Exposure, Experience, and Expertise: Why Personal Histories Matter in Economics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Malmendier
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Neural Connections ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Experience Effects ◽  
Past Experiences

Abstract Personal experiences of economic outcomes, from global financial crises to individual-level job losses, can shape individual beliefs, risk attitudes, and choices for years to come. A growing literature on experience effects shows that individuals act as if past outcomes that they experienced were overly likely to occur again, even if they are fully informed about the actual likelihood. This reaction to past experiences is long-lasting though it decays over time as individuals accumulate new experiences. Modern brain science helps understand these processes. Evidence on neural plasticity reveals that personal experiences and learning alter the strength of neural connections and fine-tune the brain structure to those past experiences (“use-dependent brain”). I show that experience effects help understand belief formation and decision-making in a wide range of economic applications, including inflation, home purchases, mortgage choices, and consumption expenditures. I argue that experience-based learning is broadly applicable to economic decision-making and discuss topics for future research in education, health, race, and gender economics.

scholarly journals A Tale of Odds and Ratios: Political Preference Formation in Postindustrial Democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Wineroither ◽  
Rudolf Metz
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Preference Formation ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThis report surveys four approaches that are pivotal to the study of preference formation: (a) the range, validity, and theoretical foundations of explanations of political preferences at the individual and mass levels, (b) the exploration of key objects of preference formation attached to the democratic political process (i.e., voting in competitive elections), (c) the top-down vs. bottom-up character of preference formation as addressed in leader–follower studies, and (d) gene–environment interaction and the explanatory weight of genetic predisposition against the cumulative weight of social experiences.In recent years, our understanding of sites and processes of (individual) political-preference formation has substantially improved. First, this applies to a greater variety of objects that provide fresh insight into the functioning and stability of contemporary democracy. Second, we observe the reaffirmation of pivotal theories and key concepts in adapted form against widespread challenge. This applies to the role played by social stratification, group awareness, and individual-level economic considerations. Most of these findings converge in recognising economics-based explanations. Third, research into gene–environment interplay rapidly increases the number of testable hypotheses and promises to benefit a wide range of approaches already taken and advanced in the study of political-preference formation.

scholarly journals Are public service media distinctive from the market? Interpreting the political information environments of BBC and commercial news in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 026732312110121
Author(s):  
Stephen Cushion
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Television News ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
International Issues ◽  
Market Driven

Public service media face an existential crisis. Many governments are cutting their budgets, while questioning the role and value of public service broadcasting because many citizens now have access to a wide range of media. This raises the question – do public service media supply a distinctive and informative news service compared to market-led media? Drawing on the concept of political information environment, this study makes an intervention into debates by carrying out a comparative content analysis of news produced by UK public service broadcasters and market-driven media across television, radio and online outlets (N = 1065) and interviewing senior editors about the routine selection of news. It found that almost all BBC news and commercial public service media platforms reported more news about politics, public affairs and international issues than entirely market-driven outlets. Online BBC news reported more informative topics than market-based media, which featured more entertainment and celebrity stories. The value of public service media was demonstrated on the United Kingdom’s nightly television news bulletins, which shone a light on the world not often reported, especially BBC News at Ten. Most market-driven media reported through a UK prism, excluding many countries and international issues. Overall, it is argued that the influence of public service media in the United Kingdom helps shape an information environment with informative news. The focus of the study is on UK media, but the conceptual application of intepreting a political information environment is designed to be relevant for scholars internationally. While communication studies have sought to advance more cross-national studies in recent years, this can limit how relevant studies are for debates in national political information environments. This study concludes by recommending more scholarly attention should be paid to theorising national policy dynamics that shape the political information environments of media systems within nations.

Pluralistic Ignorance Research in Psychology: A Scoping Review of Topic and Method Variation and Directions for Future Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 108926802199516
Author(s):  
Rikki H. Sargent ◽  
Leonard S. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Pluralistic Ignorance ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Group Members

Pluralistic ignorance occurs when group members mistakenly believe others’ cognitions and/or behaviors are systematically different from their own. More than 20 years have passed since the last review of pluralistic ignorance from a psychological framework, with more than 60 empirical articles assessing pluralistic ignorance published since then. Previous reviews took an almost entirely conceptual approach with minimal review of methodology, making existing reviews outdated and limited in the extent to which they can provide guidelines for researchers. The goal of this review is to evaluate and integrate the literature on pluralistic ignorance, clarify important conceptual issues, identify inconsistencies in the literature, and provide guidance for future research. We provide a comprehensive definition for the phenomenon, with a focus on its status as a group-level phenomenon. We highlight three areas of variation in particular in the current scoping review: variation in topics assessed, variation in measurement, and (especially) variation in methods for assessing the implications of individual-level misperceptions that, in aggregate, lead to pluralistic ignorance. By filling these gaps in the literature, we ultimately hope to motivate further analysis of the phenomenon.

Waking Up in the Poll Booth

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-910
Author(s):  
Robert E. Goodin ◽  
James Mahmud Rice
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Waking Up

Judging from Gallup Polls in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, opinion often changes during an election campaign. Come election day itself, however, opinion often reverts back nearer to where it was before the campaign began. That that happens even in Australia, where voting is compulsory and turnout is near-universal, suggests that differential turnout among those who have and have not been influenced by the campaign is not the whole story. Inspection of individual-level panel data from 1987 and 2005 British General Elections confirms that between 3 and 5 percent of voters switch voting intentions during the campaign, only to switch back toward their original intentions on election day. One explanation, we suggest, is that people become more responsible when stepping into the poll booth: when voting they reflect back on the government's whole time in office, rather than just responding (as when talking to pollsters) to the noise of the past few days' campaigning. Inspection of Gallup Polls for UK snap elections suggests that this effect is even stronger in elections that were in that sense unanticipated.

Health care Online

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-25
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Medical Opinion ◽  
Proactive Approach ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Subject

The BMJ has always been recognised as a leading medical journal for a wide range of subjects, and has always been useful for nurses to access for up to date and current medical opinion. Recently the BMJ has diversified to take on a more political nature, with its content reflecting a more proactive approach to influencing health care policy in the United Kingdom by the medical profession. As such the BMJ has become extremely useful for identifying opinions of current ‘hot topics’ for nurses that are headline news such as nurse consultants, hospital administration and central government policy. However, one problem remains, trying to find the original copy in the library will remain difficult. After spending the best part of an hour to suddenly realise that ‘how silly you are for not realising that BMJ March 1997 is filed in the British Journal of Nursing section 1998!!’ is often a frustrating and demoralising experience - particularly if after finding the article you find it has nothing to do with the subject that you are researching. This problem is to be banished forever with the BMJ website. The full BMJ is available free on line. The excellent search engine is particularly useful and is accurate when matching target articles. All articles are available for ‘full text’ downloads free of charge.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Heterogeneity in German Speaking Birdwatchers Reveals Three Distinct Clusters and Gender Differences

Birds ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-260
Author(s):  
Christoph Randler
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Cluster Solution ◽  
Novice Group ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Bird Group ◽  
And Gender

The purpose of this study was to segment birdwatchers into clusters. Members from a wide range of bird related organizations, from highly specialized birders as well as Facebook bird group members were studied to provide a diverse dataset (n = 2766; 50.5% men). Birding specialization was measured with a battery of questionnaires. Birding specialization encompassed the three constructs of skill/competence, behavior, personal and behavioral commitment. Additionally, involvement, measured by centrality to lifestyle, attraction, social bonding, and identity, was used. The NbClust analyses showed that a three-cluster solution was the optimal solution. Then, k-means cluster analysis was applied on three groups: casual/novice, intermediate, and specialist/advanced birdwatchers. More men than women were in the specialist/advanced group and more women than men in the casual/novice group. As a conclusion, this study confirms a three-cluster solution for segmenting German birdwatchers based on a large and diverse sample and a broad conceptualization of the construct birding specialization. These data can be used to address different target audiences (novices, advanced birders) with different programs, e.g., in nature conservation.

School Reform and Parental Engagement Learning in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Goodall
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
School Reform ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Parental Engagement ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Per Se

Parental engagement in children and young people’s learning has been shown to be an important lever for school improvement and young people’s outcomes. However, parents are rarely involved in school reform movements. These reform movements are generally centered on the school rather than on improvement of learning per se. Shifting the focus away from the school and to learning as an overarching aim requires the inclusion of and partnership with parents. This is a new way of understanding school reform but has the best chance of supporting all students, including those not best served by the schooling systems in the early 21st century. The reforms here are chiefly concerned with U.K. schooling systems, but could be more widely applicable, and call on a wide range of evidence, from the United Kingdom and beyond.

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