Arab Responses to Western Hegemony

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Nugent ◽  
Tarek Masoud ◽  
Amaney A. Jamal
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Western Hegemony

Scholars have long held that Islamism—defined as a political ideology that demands the application of Islamic holy law and the deepening of religious identity—is in part a response to Western domination of Muslim lands. Drawing on the literatures on nationalism and international relations theory, we argue that Islamism is one of a menu of options that Muslims may adopt in response to Western hegemony—a menu that includes Arab nationalism and pro-Western accommodation. We hypothesize that a Muslim’s ideological response to Western domination is a function of the type of domination experienced—that is, military, cultural, or economic—as well as of individual-level characteristics such as intensity of religious practice. We test this hypothesis with a nationally representative survey experiment conducted in Egypt. We find that, among subjects in our study, pro-Western responses to Western domination were more common than “Islamist” or “nationalist” ones and that these were particularly driven by reminders of the West’s economic ascendancy. These findings suggest that foreign domination does not always yield defensive responses and often produces desires for greater cooperation with the hegemon.

scholarly journals Social connectedness and political behavior

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316801771917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Lyons Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Socially Isolated

One of the focal points of social networks research has been the process by which individuals utilize information and cues from their social networks and communities to form political attitudes and make decisions about how and when to participate in politics. Not all individuals, however, have large social networks or are strongly connected to their local social environments. Furthermore, despite concerns about rising social isolation in American society, the role that relatively socially disconnected individuals play in politics is not well understood. Using a nationally representative data set with information about communities, social networks, and individual-level variables, this paper examines social connectedness and political behavior. Those who are more socially isolated, it is found, are neither more conservative nor liberal on any particular political issues, but clearly participate in politics less than individuals who are well connected to those around them. Finally, while individual political ideology is not correlated with isolation, the contextual influence of the local environment on individual preferences is correlated with social connectedness. When compared with well connected citizens, individuals who are more isolated are less likely to have their vote choices influenced by those around them. Individual social connectedness conditions the effect of contextual social influence.

#No2Sectarianism: Experimental Approaches to Reducing Sectarian Hate Speech Online

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 837-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRA A. SIEGEL ◽  
VIVIENNE BADAAN
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Suggestive Evidence ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Nationally Representative

We use an experiment across the Arab Twittersphere and a nationally representative survey experiment in Lebanon to evaluate what types of counter-speech interventions are most effective in reducing sectarian hate speech online. We explore whether and to what extent messages priming common national identity or common religious identity, with and without elite endorsements, decrease the use of hostile anti-outgroup language. We find that elite-endorsed messages that prime common religious identity are the most consistently effective in reducing the spread of sectarian hate speech. Our results provide suggestive evidence that religious elites may play an important role as social referents—alerting individuals to social norms of acceptable behavior. By randomly assigning counter-speech treatments to actual producers of online hate speech and experimentally evaluating the effectiveness of these messages on a representative sample of citizens that might be incidentally exposed to such language, this work offers insights for researchers and policymakers on avenues for combating harmful rhetoric on and offline.

Personality change and environmental concerns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
German Population ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Sustainable Behavior ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Personal concerns about climate change and the environment are a powerful motivator of sustainable behavior. People’s level of concern varies as a function of a variety of social and individual factors. Using data from 58,748 participants from a nationally representative German sample, we tested preregistered hypotheses about factors that impact concerns about the environment over time. We found that environmental concerns increased modestly from 2009-2017 in the German population. However, individuals in middle adulthood tended to be more concerned and showed more consistent increases in concern over time than younger or older people. Consistent with previous research, Big Five personality traits were correlated with environmental concerns. We present novel evidence that increases in concern were related to increases in the personality traits neuroticism and openness to experience. Indeed, changes in openness explained roughly 50% of the variance in changes in environmental concerns. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual level factors associated with changes in environmental concerns over time, towards the promotion of more sustainable behavior at the individual level.

Are voters too afraid to tackle corruption? Survey and experimental evidence from Mexico

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Omar García-Ponce ◽  
Thomas Zeitzoff ◽  
Leonard Wantchekon
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Mexican Drug War ◽  
The Face ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Nationally Representative

Abstract Are individuals in violent contexts reluctant to tackle corruption for fear of future violence? Or does violence mobilize them to fight corruption? We investigate these questions looking at the effects of fear and violence stemming from the Mexican Drug War on attitudes toward corruption. We conducted two surveys before the 2012 Mexican presidential election. First, as part of a nationally representative survey, we find a positive correlation between fear of violence and willingness to accept corruption in exchange for lower levels of violence. To disentangle causal effects, we conducted a follow-up survey experiment in Greater Mexico City where we manipulated fear over the Drug War. We find that individuals within this context are not easily scared. Those who received a common fear-inducing manipulation do not report higher levels of fear and are less willing to tolerate corruption. Conversely, we find strong evidence that individuals who have been victims of crime are more likely to report both higher levels of fear and willingness to accept corruption if it lowers violence. Our findings suggest that voters are more strategic and resilient in the face of violence than many extant theories of political behavior suggest.

President Obama and the Emergence of Islamophobia in Mass Partisan Preferences

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110072
Author(s):  
Michael Tesler
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Independent Predictor ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Significant Independent Predictor ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Panel Surveys ◽  
Voter Preferences ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

This article argues that the unusually large and persistent association between Islamophobia and opposition to President Obama helped make attitudes about Muslims a significant, independent predictor of Americans’ broader partisan preferences. After detailing the theoretical basis for this argument, the article marshals repeated cross-sectional data, two panel surveys, and a nationally representative survey experiment, to test its hypotheses. The results from those analyses show the following: (1) attitudes about Muslims were a significantly stronger independent predictor of voter preferences for congress in 2010–2014 elections than they were in 2004–2008; (2) attitudes about Muslims were a significantly stronger independent predictor of mass partisanship during Obama’s presidency than they were beforehand; and (3) experimentally connecting Obama to Democratic congressional candidates significantly increased the relationship between anti-Muslim sentiments and Americans’ preferences for Republican congressional candidates. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for American politics in the Trump era.

scholarly journals Political ideology and vaccination willingness: implications for policy design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Debus ◽  
Jale Tosun
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Short Time Period ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Short Time

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to impose major restrictions on individual freedom in order to stop the spread of the virus. With the successful development of a vaccine, these restrictions are likely to become obsolete—on the condition that people get vaccinated. However, parts of the population have reservations against vaccination. While this is not a recent phenomenon, it might prove a critical one in the context of current attempts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the task of designing policies suitable for attaining high levels of vaccination deserves enhanced attention. In this study, we use data from the Eurobarometer survey fielded in March 2019. They show that 39% of Europeans consider vaccines to cause the diseases which they should protect against, that 50% believe vaccines have serious side effects, that 32% think that vaccines weaken the immune system, and that 10% do not believe vaccines are tested rigorously before authorization. We find that—even when controlling for important individual-level factors—ideological extremism on both ends of the spectrum explains skepticism of vaccination. We conclude that policymakers must either politicize the issue or form broad alliances among parties and societal groups in order to increase trust in and public support for the vaccines in general and for vaccines against COVID-19 in particular, since the latter were developed in a very short time period and resulted—in particular in case of the AstraZeneca vaccine—in reservations because of the effectiveness and side effects of the new vaccines.

scholarly journals Correcting Citizens’ Misperceptions about non-Western Immigrants: Corrective Information, Interpretations, and Policy Opinions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik Juhl Jørgensen ◽  
Mathias Osmundsen
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Correct Information ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Information Change ◽  
Corrective Information

Abstract Can corrective information change citizens’ misperceptions about immigrants and subsequently lead to favorable immigration opinions? While prior studies from the USA document how corrections about the size of minority populations fail to change citizens’ immigration-related opinions, they do not examine how other facts that speak to immigrants’ cultural or economic dependency rates can influence immigration policy opinions. To extend earlier work, we conducted a large-scale survey experiment fielded to a nationally representative sample of Danes. We randomly expose participants to information about non-Western immigrants’ (1) welfare dependency rate, (2) crime rate, and (3) proportion of the total population. We find that participants update their factual beliefs in light of correct information, but reinterpret the information in a highly selective fashion, ultimately failing to change their policy preferences.

Prevalence and clustering of diarrhoea within households in India: some evidence from NFHS-4, 2015–16

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bevin Vijayan ◽  
Mala Ramanathan
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Diarrhoeal Disease ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Improved Sanitation ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Water Supply And Sanitation

AbstractDiarrhoeal disease is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children and is usually measured at individual level. Shared household attributes, such as improved water supply and sanitation, expose those living in the same household to these same risk factors for diarrhoea. The occurrence of diarrhoea in two or more children in the same household is termed ‘diarrhoea clustering’. The aim of this study was to examine the role of improved water supply and sanitation in the occurrence of diarrhoea, and the clustering of diarrhoea in households, among under-five children in India. Data were taken from the fourth round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4), a nationally representative survey which interviewed 699,686 women from 601,509 households in the country. If any child was reported to have diarrhoea in a household in the 2 weeks preceding the survey, the household was designated a diarrhoeal household. Household clustering of diarrhoea was defined the occurrence of diarrhoea in more than one child in households with two or more children. The analysis was done at the household level separately for diarrhoeal households and clustering of diarrhoea in households. The presence of clustering was tested using a chi-squared test. The overall prevalences of diarrhoea and clustering of diarrhoea were examined using exogenous variables. Odds ratios, standardized to allow comparison across categories, were computed. The household prevalence of diarrhoea was 12% and that of clustering of diarrhoea was 2.4%. About 6.5% of households contributed 12.6% of the total diarrhoeal cases. Access to safe water and sanitation was shown to have a great impact on reducing diarrhoeal prevalence and clustering across different household groups. Safe water alone had a greater impact on reducing the prevalence in the absence of improved sanitation when compared with the presence of improved sanitation. It may be possible to reduce the prevalence of diarrhoea in households by targeting those households with more than one child in the under-five age group with the provision of safe water and improved sanitation.

Home-State Interest, Nationalism, and the Legitimacy of the International Criminal Court

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Nathan T. Carrington ◽  
Claire Sigsworth
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
International Courts ◽  
Home State ◽  
Institutional Costs ◽  
Nationally Representative

Although legitimacy is crucial for courts’ efficacy, the sources identified as legitimizing domestic institutions are weaker or absent altogether for international institutions. We use an original, preregistered, nationally representative survey experiment to show that perceived home-state interest strongly affects the legitimacy afforded by UK citizens to the International Criminal Court. Importantly, this relationship is moderated by nationalism. Our findings have implications for state actors in a position to act vis-á-vis international courts, elites seeking to alter opinions toward courts, and courts themselves weighing possible institutional costs of acting against noncompliant states.

State- and Individual-Level Predictors of Mexican Death Penalty Support

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 1590-1611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander H. Updegrove ◽  
Erin A. Orrick
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Future Practice ◽  
Insight Into

Mexico exerts a unique influence on Texas through immigration. As immigrants bring perspectives from their country of origin when they immigrate, studying attitudes toward capital punishment in Mexico may provide insight into ways Mexican immigrants could affect its future practice in Texas. Multilevel modeling is used to examine individual- and state-level predictors of death penalty support among a nationally representative sample of Mexicans. Results indicate age and Catholic affiliation are associated with death penalty support, although not in the expected directions, whereas states bordering the United States are less likely to support capital punishment, despite experiencing less overall peace and a higher average homicide rate. Findings suggest the need for researchers to use culture-specific factors to predict death penalty support.

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