scholarly journals Transgender prejudice reduction and opinions on transgender rights: Results from a mediation analysis on experimental data

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 205316801876494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Flores ◽  
Donald P. Haider-Markel ◽  
Daniel C. Lewis ◽  
Patrick R. Miller ◽  
Barry L. Tadlock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Stigmatized Groups ◽  
Experimental Treatments ◽  
Reliable Mechanism

Fears, phobias, and dislikes about minorities should be strong determinants of whether Americans support policies protecting such minorities. Studies suggest that discussions and information about transgender people can reduce transphobia. However, these studies also indicate that experimental treatments do not necessarily affect individual attitudes on policies concerning transgender rights. Scholars contend that durably reducing prejudice should increase public support for minority rights. In this study, we examine this causal mechanism utilizing an experiment. We find that reducing transphobia is a reliable mechanism to increase public support for transgender rights. These results are robust to causal identification assumptions, suggesting that this mechanism provides a clear avenue for stigmatized groups to increase public support of rights for those groups.

Elite Military Cues and Public Opinion About the Use of Military Force

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Golby ◽  
Peter Feaver ◽  
Kyle Dropp
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Causal Mediation Analysis ◽  
Large Survey ◽  
Public Opposition

Do military endorsements influence Americans’ political and foreign policy views? We find that senior military officers have the ability to nudge public attitudes under certain conditions. Through a series of large, survey-based experiments, with nearly 12,000 completed interviews from national samples, we find that participants respond to survey questions in predictable ways depending on whether they have been prompted with information about the views of senior military leaders on the very same questions. When told that senior military leaders oppose particular interventions abroad, public opposition to that intervention increases; endorsements of support boost public support but by a smaller magnitude. Subsequent causal mediation analysis suggests that military opinion influences public opinion primarily through its impact on a mission’s perceived legitimacy and, to a lesser degree, it’s perceived likelihood of success.

scholarly journals How Moral Foundations Shape Public Approval of Nuclear, Chemical, and Conventional Strikes: New Evidence from Experimental Surveys

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Smetana ◽  
Marek Albert Vranka
Keyword(s):  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
Military Force ◽  
The Public ◽  
Experimental Treatments ◽  
New Evidence

We present the results of two survey experiments on public support for nuclear, chemical, and conventional strikes. We examined how moral values of individuals interact with the approval of different kinds of strikes and with the effects of information about the ingroup and out-group fatalities. Our results show that while the public is more averse to the employment of chemical weapons than to the conduct of nuclear or conventional strikes, the overall relationship between strike approval and the individuals’ moral values does not differ across the three experimental treatments. In addition, we found that individuals’ scores in so-called “binding” moral values affect the sensitivity of the public for in-group fatalities. Findings of our paper contribute to the broader debates in the field about the strength and nature of the norms against the use of nuclear and chemical weapons, and about the role of morality in the public attitudes to the use of military force.

Redistribution and the Quality of Government: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Bilyana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract The welfare state literature has largely ignored the impact of a country's quality of government on its levels of redistribution. Using cross-sectional time-series analysis of twenty-one Central and Eastern European countries, this article shows that environments characterized by higher levels of corruption, rampant bureaucratic inefficiency and ineffective enforcement of the rule of law are associated with lower levels of redistribution. Poor government directly affects the supply side of the redistribution process by hindering countries’ ability to allocate funds to redistribution and deliver them to their beneficiaries. Contrary to existing demand-oriented perspectives, the proposed causal mechanism does not blame lower redistribution on the lack of public support for the welfare state. Rather, it focuses on the capacity of states to adopt and implement inequality-reducing policies. The results are robust to numerous extensions and model specifications.

scholarly journals Promoting children's positive intergroup attitudes towards stigmatized groups: Extended contact and multiple classification skills training

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 454-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Cameron ◽  
Adam Rutland ◽  
Rupert Brown
Keyword(s):  
Skills Training ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Multiple Classification ◽  
Extended Contact ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Stigmatized Groups ◽  
Control Study

Two studies were conducted to evaluate interventions, based upon the extended contact hypothesis and multiple classification skills training, which aimed to promote children's positive intergroup attitudes towards two stigmatized groups. Study 1 tested whether extended contact and multiple classification skills training changed out-group attitudes towards the disabled among 6—9 year-old children. Out-group attitudes were significantly more positive only in the extended contact condition compared to the control. Study 2 involved four conditions: control, extended contact, modified multiple classification skills training and a combination of both interventions. Again, only the 6—11 year-old children who experienced the extended contact interventions (extended contact and combined) showed significantly more positive attitudes towards the refugee out-group compared to the control. The implications of these findings for the development of prejudice-reduction strategies in children will be discussed.

Clarifying the Ideological Asymmetry in Public Attitudes Toward Political Protest

2020 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2097532
Author(s):  
David Barker ◽  
Kimberly Nalder ◽  
Jessica Newham
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
Political Protests ◽  
Experimental Treatments

Political protests cannot succeed without public support. Extant studies point to weaker average support among ideological conservatives, but researchers have yet to consider the extent to which such apparent ideological asymmetry is (a) an artifact of the particular protest cases that researchers have tended to investigate, and/or (b) conditioned by the precise meaning of “ideological conservatism.” In this investigation, we address these gaps. Specifically, we analyze public perceptions of protest legitimacy after exposing survey respondents to one of a series of experimental treatments that randomize the specific ideological and issue contents of the particular protests under consideration. In iterative models, we observe how political ideology, social dominance orientation and authoritarianism condition the effects associated with these experimental treatments. The data suggest that that the notorious ideological asymmetry that is often associated with support for protests is authentic, but it is also conditioned in important ways by these other factors.

Mediation analysis for mixture Cox proportional hazards cure models

2021 ◽  
pp. 096228022110031
Author(s):  
Xiaoxiao Zhou ◽  
Xinyuan Song
Keyword(s):  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Proportional Hazards ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Survival Models ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Cure Fraction ◽  
Cure Models ◽  
Restricted Mean Survival Time ◽  
Latent Group

Mediation analysis aims to decompose a total effect into specific pathways and investigate the underlying causal mechanism. Although existing methods have been developed to conduct mediation analysis in the context of survival models, none of these methods accommodates the existence of a substantial proportion of subjects who never experience the event of interest, even if the follow-up is sufficiently long. In this study, we consider mediation analysis for the mixture of Cox proportional hazards cure models that cope with the cure fraction problem. Path-specific effects on restricted mean survival time and survival probability are assessed by introducing a partially latent group indicator and applying the mediation formula approach in a three-stage mediation framework. A Bayesian approach with P-splines for approximating the baseline hazard function is developed to conduct analysis. The satisfactory performance of the proposed method is verified through simulation studies. An application of the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neuroimaging initiative dataset investigates the causal effects of APOE-[Formula: see text] allele on AD progression.

scholarly journals No home court advantage: The trump impeachment trial and attitudes toward the U.S. Supreme Court

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316802110530
Author(s):  
Miles T Armaly ◽  
Adam M Enders
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Chief Justice ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Experimental Treatments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Although the U.S. Supreme Court goes to great lengths to avoid the “political thicket,” it is sometimes unwittingly pulled in. We employ several experimental treatments—each of which is composed of real behaviors that took place during the Trump impeachment trial—to understand the impact of the trial on attitudes about the Court. We find that Chief Justice Roberts’ presence and behaviors during the trial failed to legitimize the proceeding and may have even harmed views of the Court. Treatments involving Roberts’ actions decreased willingness to accept Court decisions and, in some cases, negatively impacted perceived legitimacy. We also find that criticisms of the Chief Justice by Senators decreased decision acceptance. These findings clarify both the bounds of the institution’s legitimizing power and the tenuous nature of public support in times of greater Court politicization by outside actors.

scholarly journals Authoritarian Leadership Politics and Constraints on the Executive: A Mediation Analysis of Ideology, Populism, and Civil Group Balance of Power

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Authoritarian Leadership ◽  
Rhetorical Style ◽  
Traditional Institutions

Why do some regimes slide further into autocracy while other regimes, similar in their formal institutions and economies, move toward democratization? What can explain the erosion of longstanding traditional institutions in autocracy? I contend that the answer lies in the ideology of the dictator with rhetorical style in a secondary role. Specifically, ideological programs of aggressive social change necessarily weaken existing civil society constraints and the reliance of the regime on ideology for legitimacy increases the power of ideological support groups. The combination of ideological agendas hostile to existing social structures with the instrumental use of populist rhetoric to bypass existing constraints is corrosive to both civil society and the institutional constraints it supports. This project will demonstrate using mediation analysis that radical leadership ideology results in the erosion of institutional constraints with changes in civil society as a causal mechanism, and that populism's role is secondary.

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