Knowledge about the nature of science increases public acceptance of science regardless of identity factors

2020 ◽  
pp. 096366252097770
Author(s):  
Deena Skolnick Weisberg ◽  
Asheley R. Landrum ◽  
Jesse Hamilton ◽  
Michael Weisberg
Keyword(s):  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Acceptance Of Evolution ◽  
The Us ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
Positive Effect

While people’s views about science are related to identity factors (e.g. political orientation) and to knowledge of scientific theories, knowledge about how science works in general also plays an important role. To test this claim, we administered two detailed assessments about the practices of science to a demographically representative sample of the US public ( N = 1500), along with questions about the acceptance of evolution, climate change, and vaccines. Participants’ political and religious views predicted their acceptance of scientific claims, as in prior work. But a greater knowledge of the nature of science and a more mature view of how to mitigate scientific disagreements each related positively to acceptance. Importantly, the positive effect of scientific thinking on acceptance held regardless of participants’ political ideology or religiosity. Increased attention to developing people’s knowledge of how science works could thus help to combat resistance to scientific claims across the political and religious spectrum.

Protecting America’s borders: Christian nationalism, threat, and attitudes toward immigrants in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022097829
Author(s):  
Rosemary L. Al-Kire ◽  
Michael H. Pasek ◽  
Jo-Ann Tsang ◽  
Joseph Leman ◽  
Wade C. Rowatt
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
The Us ◽  
Immigrant Policies ◽  
Christian Nationalism

Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policies are divisive issues in American politics. These attitudes are influenced by factors such as political orientation and religiousness, with religious and conservative individuals demonstrating higher prejudice toward immigrants and refugees, and endorsing stricter immigration policies. Christian nationalism, an ideology marked by the belief that America is a Christian nation, may help explain how religious nationalist identity influences negative attitudes toward immigrants. The current research addresses this through four studies among participants in the US. Across studies, our results showed that Christian nationalism was a significant and consistent predictor of anti-immigrant stereotypes, prejudice, dehumanization, and support for anti-immigrant policies. These effects were robust to inclusion of other sources of anti-immigrant attitudes, including religious fundamentalism, nationalism, and political ideology. Further, perceived threats from immigrants mediated the relationship between Christian nationalism and dehumanization of immigrants, and attitudes toward immigration policies. These findings have implications for our understanding of the relations between religious nationalism and attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the US, as well as in other contexts.

The marijuana user in US news media: an examination of visual stereotypes of race, culture, criminality and normification

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-255
Author(s):  
Tara Marie Mortensen ◽  
Leigh Moscowitz ◽  
Anan Wan ◽  
Aimei Yang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Marijuana Use ◽  
The Political ◽  
Marijuana User ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Visual Framing ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
News Outlet

In the wake of growing legalization efforts, both medicinal and recreational marijuana use in the US is becoming more prevalent and societally acceptable. However, racial, criminal and cultural stereotypes linger in mediated visual portrayals. This study examines the extent to which mediated visual portrayals in mainstream news have been impacted by these recent legalization efforts. Employing a quantitative as well as a qualitative analysis of visual images used to represent marijuana use in mainstream news, this study draws upon the power of visual framing and the construction of social reality to examine how visual symbols and iconic signifiers are used to construct both stereotypical and ‘mainstreamed’ or ‘normative’ depictions of marijuana use. Analyzing 458 visuals across 10 different media outlets across the political spectrum, both before and after legalization of marijuana in Colorado, this study shows how news portrayals perpetuated stereotypes about marijuana users, particularly around criminality and pot-culture iconography. Relatively few depictions of marijuana users in the US are visuals of ordinary, ‘normal’ people or families. This study thus interrogates the relationship between representations of race, criminality and ‘pothead’ stereotypes associated with marijuana use, and how these visual representations differ amongst liberal and conservative news sites, finding that the political ideology of the news outlet largely influences the visual stereotyping of marijuana users. The study concludes by considering both the legal and cultural implications of how mainstream news visually represents marijuana use, considering how persistent decades-old representations were largely perpetuated rather than challenged in light of legalization efforts.

A comparative study of the acceptance and understanding of evolution between China and the US

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110068
Author(s):  
Mingjun Zhang ◽  
Deena Skolnick Weisberg ◽  
Jing Zhu ◽  
Michael Weisberg
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Chinese Sample ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Acceptance Of Evolution ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Relationship

Prior work has found that Americans’ views on evolution are significantly and positively related to their understanding of this theory. However, whether this relationship is cross-culturally robust is unknown. This article extends earlier work by measuring and comparing the acceptance and understanding of evolution among highly educated individuals in China and the United States. We find a significantly higher evolution acceptance level in the Chinese sample than in the US sample, but no significant difference in their average levels of evolution knowledge. Our analysis also shows that accepting evolutionary theory is related to understanding in both the US and the Chinese samples. These results provide evidence for the robustness of the relationship between understanding and acceptance of evolution across different cultural contexts. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to comprehensively test understanding of evolutionary theory within a Chinese sample and to compare these results with the US sample.

scholarly journals Ideology, policy decision-making and environmental impact in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic in the US

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Prieto-Rodriguez ◽  
Rafael Salas ◽  
Douglas Noonan ◽  
Francisco Tomas Cabeza-Martinez ◽  
Javier Ramos-Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One

Covid-19 pandemic was a challenge for the health systems of many countries. It altered people's way of life and shocked the world economy. In the United States, political ideology has clashed with the fight against the pandemic. President Trump's denial prevailed despite the warnings from the WHO and scientists who alerted of the seriousness of the situation. Despite this, some state governments did not remain passive in the absence of federal government measures, and passed laws restricting mobility (lockdowns). Consequently, the political polarity was accentuated. On the one hand, the defenders of more severe public health measures and, on the other, the advocates of individual rights and freedom above any other consideration. In this study, we analyze whether political partisanship and the political ideology has influenced the way Covid-19 was handled at the outbreak. Specifically, we analyze by using a Diff-in-Diff model, whether the ideology of each state, measure at three levels, affected the decrease in the NO2 levels observed after the pandemic outbreak in the US. We distinguish three alternative post-Covid periods and results show that the State ideology has a robust negative impact on the NO2 levels. There is an important difference between Democratic and Republican states, not just in the scope and following-up of the mobility and activity restrictions, but also in the speed they implemented them.

scholarly journals You Can Leave Your Glasses on

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Fleischmann ◽  
Joris Lammers ◽  
Janka I. Stoker ◽  
Harry Garretsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Orientation ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
The Us ◽  
Important Study ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract. Does wearing glasses hurt or help politicians in elections? Although some research shows that glasses signal unattractiveness, glasses also increase perceptions of competence. In eight studies, participants voted for politicians wearing (photoshopped) glasses or not. Wearing glasses increased politicians’ electoral success in the US (Study 1), independent of their political orientation (Studies 2a and 2b). This positive effect was especially strong when intelligence was important (Study 3), and even occurred if glasses were used strategically (Study 4). However, it did not extend to India (Study 5) due to different cultural associations with glasses (Study 6). Furthermore, while intelligence mediated the effect, warmth did not (Study 7). In summary, wearing glasses can robustly boost electoral success, at least in Western cultures.

scholarly journals Income inequality in Europe and the US: a partisan issue?

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sotiris Zartaloudis
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Disposable Income ◽  
The Political ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
The Us ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Overall Effectiveness

<p>This paper discusses the levels, trends and causes<br />of income inequality in Europe and the US. On<br />the one hand, it finds that although market<br />income inequality has generally risen, it did so<br />more in some countries and less in others. On<br />the other hand, disposable income inequality<br />has had a puzzling irregular development. The<br />latter is higher in the US, whereas in Europe<br />three clusters of countries exist: Mediterranean<br />and Central and Eastern European (CEE)<br />countries have the highest disposable income<br />inequality –with the UK being the only rich EU<br />country belonging to this group. Continental<br />Europe has medium to low inequality while the<br />lowest is found in the Scandinavian ones. The<br />only exceptions to this ranking are some of the<br />CEEs who belong to the group with the lowest<br />disposable income inequality. It is argued that<br />the best explanation for this classification and the<br />national disposable income inequalities’ history<br />is the different national public policy, that is,<br />national redistributive policies, different taxation<br />systems and social security contributions, which<br />stems from the political ideology of the ruling<br />party, the overall effectiveness and generosity of<br />redistributive policies.</p>

scholarly journals What is (un)fair? Political ideology and collective action

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 810-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gosia Mikołajczak ◽  
Julia C. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Protests ◽  
Fairness Principles ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Political Spectrum

The established models predicting collective action have been developed based on liberal ideas of injustice perceptions showing that progressive collective action occurs when people perceive that the equality or need rule of fairness are violated. We argue, however, that these perceptions of injustice cannot explain the occurrence of social protests among Conservatives. The present work addresses one shortcoming in collective action research by exploring the interactive role of political ideology and injustice appraisals in predicting social protest. Specifically, we focused on injustice appraisals as a key predictor of collective action and tested whether the same or different conceptualizations of injustice instigate protest among Liberals versus Conservatives using data from two studies conducted in Germany (Study 1, N = 130) and in the US (Study 2, N = 115). Our findings indicate that injustice appraisals play an equally important role in instigating social protest both among Liberals and Conservatives. As we show, however, predicting collective action among individuals across the political spectrum requires accounting for ideological preferences for different fairness rules. Whereas Liberals are more likely to engage in protest when the equality and need rules are violated, Conservatives are more likely to protest when the merit rule is violated. We recommend that studies on collective action consider not only the strength of injustice appraisals but also their content, to assess which fairness principles guide one’s perceptions of (in)justice.

Conservatism, Personality and Political Extremism

1968 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 868-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Schoenberger
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Extremism ◽  
Mass Publics ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Ideological Structure

The empirical study of political ideology in mass publics must ultimately be related to political behavior; otherwise, the ideological description of such publics exists in an action vacuum. Yet, the most detailed and sophisticated descriptions and analyses of American conservatives and their characteristics are those which have most notably failed to connect their findings (about opinions, attitudes and ideologies) with consistent or predictable political activity of any kind.This absence of systematic linkage between belief and behavior is primarily a consequence of the general absence of ideological structure in the political orientation of the broad American electorate. But it is also a consequence of the researchers' reliance on a priori ideological measures of doubtful validity.Hence, when the student of politics is informed that reputed conservatives are, or tend to be, authoritarian, anti-Semitic and ethnocentric, or imbued with “… feelings of worthlessness, submissiveness, inferiority, timidity …, …. hostile and suspicious, … rigid and compulsive, … inflexible and unyielding …,” he must question the adequacy of the political designation “conservative” both on descriptive and predictive grounds.Because of these methodological and empirical problems, I suggest that the findings of prior resaerch and hypotheses related to them, be tested in a different manner. For example, if one examines the membership and/or known supporters of organizations which exist to aggregate and channel conservative political demands, the analysis of political ideology and its correlates can be conducted in a definitively political context, with the labels being supplied (or implied) by the actors themselves.

Challenges of the parliamentary system in Iraq after 2003

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Emad Wakaa Ajil
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Time

Iraq is one of the most Arab countries where the system of government has undergone major political transformations and violent events since the emergence of the modern Iraqi state in 1921 and up to the present. It began with the monarchy and the transformation of the regime into the republican system in 1958. In the republican system, Continued until 2003, and after the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, the regime changed from presidential to parliamentary system, and the parliamentary experience is a modern experience for Iraq, as he lived for a long time without parliamentary experience, what existed before 2003, can not be a parliamentary experience , The experience righteousness The study of the parliamentary system in particular and the political process in general has not been easy, because it is a complex and complex process that concerns the political system and its internal and external environment, both of which are influential in the political system and thus on the political process as a whole, After the US occupation of Iraq, the United States intervened to establish a permanent constitution for the country. Despite all the circumstances accompanying the drafting of the constitution, it is the first constitution to be drafted by an elected Constituent Assembly. The Iraqi Constitution adopted the parliamentary system of government and approved the principle of flexible separation of powers in order to achieve cooperation and balance between the authorities.

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