Partisanship vs. Principle: Understanding Public Opinion on Same-Day Registration

2019 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 568-583
Author(s):  
Devin McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Rule Change ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Election Laws

Abstract Voter access has become a deeply polarized issue in American politics. It is well known that policymakers’ positions on election laws are often dictated by whether they think the laws will help their electoral interests and those of their party. But we know little about whether public opinion on election laws is similarly driven by partisan interest or is instead constrained by concerns of procedural legitimacy. To answer this question, I conduct a survey experiment that frames the issue of same-day registration (SDR) in terms of which major party it is expected to help electorally. The results provide clear evidence that both Democrats and Republicans are less likely to support SDR after being told the policy will primarily increase turnout among voters of the opposing party, but little evidence that being told SDR will benefit their own party affects opinion. These findings suggest an asymmetry in citizens’ willingness to choose partisan interest over democratic principles based on whether they perceive a rule change as benefiting the in-party or out-party.

scholarly journals Partisan Ambivalence and Electoral Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Craig ◽  
Paulina Cossette ◽  
Michael Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Campaign Ads ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
High Degree

American politics today is driven largely by deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans. That said, there are many people who view the opposition in an overwhelmingly negative light – but who simultaneously possess a mix of positive and negative feelings toward their own party. This paper is a response to prior research (e.g., Lavine, Johnson, and Steenbergen 2012) indicating that such ambivalence increases the probability that voters will engage in "deliberative" (or "effortful") rather than "heuristic" thinking when responding to the choices presented to them in political campaigns. We extend the logic of this argument to a hypothetical race for Congress, using data from a survey experiment to determine whether a high degree of ambivalence toward one's party makes voters more responsive to a negative attack against the candidate of that party. In fact, we find little evidence that partisan ambivalence promotes a deliberative response to negative campaign ads.

Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Examining Framing Effects Across Party

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110532
Author(s):  
Jason Gainous ◽  
Melissa K. Merry
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
National Security ◽  
Energy Dependence ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Security Issue ◽  
Political Candidates ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Climate Change Attitudes

Research suggests that framing climate change as a national security issue can shape opinion about climate change. This research is less clear about what exactly constitutes a “national security frame” and what aspects of this frame are most persuasive. We use a survey experiment to compare the relative effects of three types of national security frames we identify. Results show that a frame centered on energy dependence had the strongest effect and was the most consistent across partisanship. Surprisingly, the effects ran in the opposite direction for Democrats and Republicans on both outcomes—negative for Democrats and positive for Republicans. We also show that the energy dependence frame moderated the influence of respondents’ affect toward political candidates and parties on their climate change attitudes. The results suggest that the energy dependence frame can shape public opinion, but that it must be tailored to particular audiences to avoid backfire effects.

scholarly journals Biased and Inaccurate Meta-Perceptions about Out-Partisans’ Support for Democratic Principles May Erode Democratic Norms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Pasek ◽  
Lee-Or Ankori Karlinsky ◽  
Alex Levy-Vene ◽  
Samantha Moore-Berg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Democratic Practices ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Democratic Norms

Two studies (one preregistered) of Americans (N = 2,200) drawn from a nationally representative panel show that both Democrats and Republicans personally value core democratic characteristics but severely underestimate opposing party members’ support for those same characteristics. In turn, the tendency to believe that political ingroup members value democratic characteristics more than political outgroup members is associated with support for anti-democratic practices. Results suggest biased and inaccurate intergroup “meta-perceptions”—beliefs about what others believe—may contribute to democratic erosion in the United States.

It’s their fault: Partisan attribution bias and its association with voting intentions

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022199008
Author(s):  
Ethan Zell ◽  
Christopher A. Stockus ◽  
Michael J. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Registered Voters ◽  
Attribution Bias ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Voting Intentions

This research examined how people explain major outcomes of political consequence (e.g., economic growth, rising inequality). We argue that people attribute positive outcomes more and negative outcomes less to their own political party than to an opposing party. We conducted two studies, one before the 2016 U.S. presidential election ( N = 244) and another before the 2020 election ( N = 249 registered voters), that examined attributions across a wide array of outcomes. As predicted, a robust partisan attribution bias emerged in both studies. Although the bias was largely equivalent among Democrats and Republicans, it was magnified among those with more extreme political ideology. Further, the bias predicted unique variance in voting intentions and significantly mediated the link between political ideology and voting. In sum, these data suggest that partisan allegiances systemically bias attributions in a group-favoring direction. We discuss implications of these findings for emerging research on political social cognition.

The Partisan Affinities of Independent ‘Leaners’

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Keith ◽  
David B. Magleby ◽  
Candice J. Nelson ◽  
Elizabeth Orr ◽  
Mark C. Westlye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Place ◽  
Striking Finding ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Prevailing View ◽  
Independent Voters

For almost a decade we have taken issue with the prevailing view of independent voters. We showed that Independents, as they were usually defined, had nothing in common, and in fact were more diverse than either Democrats or Republicans. Virtually no generalizations about Independents were correct, except by accident, because they comprise three very different kinds of people. Most Independents acknowledge that they are closer to one or the other party. The crux of our argument was that this ‘leaning’ should outweigh an initial claim of independence when deciding how to classify respondents. Our most striking finding was that leaners vote like outright partisans. We interpreted this as evidence that most professed Independents are not neutral between the parties, but are nearly as partisan as avowed Democrats and Republicans. This conclusion had major implications for both mainstream and revisionist views of American politics, all the more so because of the growing numbers of Independents, who accounted for 38 per cent of the adult population by 1978, thus matching the Democrats and leaving Republicans in a distant third place.

Surveys and the Study of Latin American Politics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan E. Carlin
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys

To understand Latin American politics, one must view it through the eyes and minds of Latin Americans. Since the middle of the 20th century, pollsters in academia, government, and industry have fielded public opinion surveys in an attempt to do just that. Although they are not typically considered political institutions, polls and surveys influence a variety of political processes directly and indirectly thanks to the legitimacy they enjoy among academics, policymakers, and publics. Large strides have been made toward making surveys more methodologically rigorous and toward improving the quality of survey data in the region. Scholars have leveraged the data to advance the theoretical understanding of a range of topics, especially political support, partisanship, and voting behavior. Despite these gains, public opinion surveys face clear challenges that threaten their hard-won legitimacy. To the extent that these challenges are met in the coming decades, public opinion polling’s role in shaping Latin American politics will remain, if not strengthen.

Understanding Public Opinion on Sanctuary Cities

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-94
Author(s):  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Correct Position ◽  
Partisan Identification ◽  
High Crime ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

Up until relatively recently, little public polling on sanctuary cities has taken place. That has changed as these policies have become points of conflict between federal and state/local governments. This chapter analyzes public opinion polls in two states with a significant stake in the sanctuary debate, California and Texas, to better understand how partisan and racial learning affect support for sanctuary policies. This chapter shows that both Democrats and Republicans have increasingly “learned” the correct position on sanctuary policies based on their partisan identification, which is the strongest predictor of support or opposition to sanctuary policies. Further, the chapter shows that opposition to sanctuary cities are strongest in areas undergoing rapid Latino growth not in high-crime areas.

Facts or Feelings?

2021 ◽  
pp. 208-226
Author(s):  
Jacob William Justice
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Expert Consensus ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Rational Argument ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Social Intuitionist Model

The social intuitionist model has significant implications for the study of communication. Specifically, this chapter argues that the social intuitionist model reveals the limitations of rational argument and illustrates factors contributing to misinformation. This argument is developed through a series of four observations. First, communicators have attempted to combat misinformation through rational argument. Second, centuries of interdisciplinary insights revealing the intuitive nature of human decision-making cast doubt on strategies that appeal to audiences primarily through facts and reason. Third, application of the social intuitionist model to contemporary American politics can help explain several puzzling dynamics, including the appeal of Donald Trump and the persistence of misinformation. Fourth, communication scholarship can be improved through greater recognition of the influence of intuition upon decision-making. This chapter concludes by proposing ways that emotional narratives can be used to bridge gaps between public opinion and expert consensus.

A WTO Ruling Matters: Citizens’ Support for the Government’s Compliance with Trade Agreements

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoko Matsumura
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Trade Dispute ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Wto Agreements

AbstractAn international court’s ruling is expected to influence public opinion because of the perception of its legality and the subsequent costs of noncompliance. However, there has been little direct empirical evidence to support this claim. To close this lacuna, I conducted a survey experiment to examine the power of a court’s ruling in the context of a trade dispute. The experiment shows that citizens become less supportive of their government’s noncompliance with GATT/WTO agreements when the World Trade Organization issues an adverse ruling, compared to when their government is verbally accused of a violation of the same agreements by a foreign country. However, the experiment also finds that the impact of a ruling is conditional upon the level of compliance of the winner of the dispute.

Support at Any Distance? The Role of Location and Prejudice in Public Opposition to the “Ground Zero Mosque”

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 753-759
Author(s):  
Brian F. Schaffner
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
York City ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Ground Zero ◽  
Multicultural Center ◽  
Public Opposition

AbstractIn 2010, a debate erupted about plans to construct a mosque (as part of a larger multicultural center) approximately two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City. The main justification given by those who opposed the mosque was that building it so close to Ground Zero would appear to be insensitive. Public opinion appeared to support this notion, as large majorities of Americans registered their opposition to the mosque in surveys conducted at the time. In this article, I examine whether distance was, in fact, an important factor influencing citizens' opposition to the mosque. Using a survey experiment, I asked for opinions on the building of a mosque while randomizing how far the mosque was located from Ground Zero. Results from the experiment indicate that opposition to the mosque was unaffected by how far the mosque would be located from Ground Zero, but strongly influenced by factors such as partisanship, ideology, and tolerance for out groups.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document