scholarly journals When election expectations fail: Polarized perceptions of election legitimacy increase with accumulating evidence of election outcomes and with polarized media

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0259473
Author(s):  
Marrissa D. Grant ◽  
Alexandra Flores ◽  
Eric J. Pedersen ◽  
David K. Sherman ◽  
Leaf Van Boven

The present study, conducted immediately after the 2020 presidential election in the United States, examined whether Democrats’ and Republicans’ polarized assessments of election legitimacy increased over time. In a naturalistic survey experiment, people (N = 1,236) were randomly surveyed either during the week following Election Day, with votes cast but the outcome unknown, or during the following week, after President Joseph Biden was widely declared the winner. The design unconfounded the election outcome announcement from the vote itself, allowing more precise testing of predictions derived from cognitive dissonance theory. As predicted, perceived election legitimacy increased among Democrats, from the first to the second week following Election Day, as their expected Biden win was confirmed, whereas perceived election legitimacy decreased among Republicans as their expected President Trump win was disconfirmed. From the first to the second week following Election Day, Republicans reported stronger negative emotions and weaker positive emotions while Democrats reported stronger positive emotions and weaker negative emotions. The polarized perceptions of election legitimacy were correlated with the tendencies to trust and consume polarized media. Consumption of Fox News was associated with lowered perceptions of election legitimacy over time whereas consumption of other outlets was associated with higher perceptions of election legitimacy over time. Discussion centers on the role of the media in the experience of cognitive dissonance and the implications of polarized perceptions of election legitimacy for psychology, political science, and the future of democratic society.

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 611-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu ◽  
Catherine M Hooker ◽  
Homero Gil de Zúñiga

This article explores the role of trust in professional and alternative media as (a) antecedents of citizen news production, and (b) moderators of the effect of citizen news production on political participation. Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States between December 2013 and March 2014, results show that trust in citizen media predicts people’s tendency to create news. In turn, citizen news production is a positive predictor of both offline and online participation. More importantly, trust in the media moderates the effect of citizen news production over online political participation. Overall, this article highlights the importance of trust in the media with respect to citizen news production and how it matters for democracy. Thus, this study casts a much-needed light on how media trust and citizen journalism intertwine in explaining a more engaged and participatory citizenry.


Author(s):  
Elliot Friedman ◽  
Beth LeBreton ◽  
Lindsay Fuzzell ◽  
Elizabeth Wehrpsann

By many estimates the majority of adults over age 65 have two or more chronic medical conditions (multimorbidity) and are consequently at increased risk of adverse functional outcomes. Nonetheless, many older adults with multimorbidity are able to maintain high levels of function and retain good quality of life. Research presented here is designed to understand the influences that help ensure better functional outcomes in these older adults. This chapter presents findings that draw on data from the Midlife in the United States study. The independent and interactive contributions of diverse factors to multimorbidity and changes in multimorbidity over time are reviewed. The degree that multimorbidity increases risk of cognitive impairment and disability is examined. The role of inflammation as a mediator is considered. Multimorbidity is increasingly the norm for older adults, so better understanding of factors contributing to variability in multimorbidity-related outcomes can lead to improved quality of life.


Author(s):  
Hao Gao ◽  
Difan Guo ◽  
Jing Wu ◽  
Lina Li

Abstract Objective: This study aimed to explore Chinese people’s attitudes to the official application of TCM in COVID-19 treatment. Methods: We collected data referring to TCM on Weibo from 0:00 on January 24th, 2020, to 23:59:59 on March 31st, 2020 (Beijing time). Besides, this paper utilized DLUT- Emotion ontology to analyze the sentiment orientation and emotions of selected data and then conducted a text analysis. Results: According to DLUT-Emotion ontology, we examined three sentiment orientations of 215,565 valid Weibo posts. Among them,25,025 posts were judged as positive emotions, accounting for approximately 12%; 22,362 were regarded as negative emotions, accounting for about 10%; and 168,178 were judged as neutral emotions, accounting for approximately 78%. Results indicate that the words judged as ‘Good’ have the highest frequency, and words marked as ‘Happy’ have increased over time. The word frequency of ‘Fear’ and ‘Sadness’ showed a significant downward trend. Conclusion: Weibo users have a relatively positive attitude to the TCM in the COVID-19 treatment in general. Results of text analysis show that data with negative emotions is essentially an expression of public opinions to supporting TCM or not. Texts of ‘Fear’ and ‘Sadness’ do not reflect users’ negative attitudes to TCM.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Ellis

Representations of war in the media have changed drastically over time. Like the media representations of war, the American public's view of wars has also shifted over time; this is often a result of the media portrayals of war events. This paper examines the role of newspaper, yellow journalism, and sensationalism writing during the Spanish-American War on the American public's support for the war and juxtaposes this with television media accounts of the American war in Vietnam and how this created public disapproval for the war. Both had everlasting effects on US war policy for the future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 534-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Ruiz-Mafe ◽  
Jose Tronch ◽  
Silvia Sanz-Blas

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of emotions and social influences on loyalty formation towards online travel communities. Design/methodology/approach The individual (perceived risk) and social (subjective norm and social presence) antecedents of emotions as well as the impact of emotions on attitude and loyalty towards online travel communities are tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consists of 385 active users of online travel communities in Spain. Findings Data analysis shows that perceived privacy and security risk elicit negative emotions such as stress, frustration and fear towards the online travel community. Normative influences (subjective norm) and feeling the presence of other community members (social presence) boost positive emotions towards the online travel community. Interpersonal influences have a positive effect on subjective norm but not external influences. Positive and negative emotions affect preferences towards the online travel community (attitudes) as proposed by social impact theory. Subjective norm and attitude have a direct influence on loyalty towards an online travel community, confirming previous research grounded on theory of reasoned action models. Originality/value Despite the crucial impact of consumers’ affective states on loyalty formation, research on social media is mainly focused on the technological nature of consumer information exchanges, neglecting other drivers of consumer behaviour beyond the technology employed. This paper develops a model that integrates the relationships between consumer emotions and their individual (perceived risk) and social (social presence and subjective norm) antecedents and outcome variables (attitude and loyalty). The role of social influences is analysed, assessing the conjoint impact of one-way communication (interpersonal influences and mass media) and Web 2.0 communications (social presence) on positive emotions and loyalty formation towards the online travel community.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhuan Zhou ◽  
Yi Wang

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Jing Wei Li ◽  
Qi Wei Zhou

Purpose From a functionalist perspective, this study aims to examine empirically how positive and negative emotions can exert influence on creativity in the workplace. This study built and tested a theoretical framework that delineates the effect of emotions on employee creativity through different learning mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach Field surveys were conducted in a Chinese company and data were collected from 340 employee-supervisor dyads. Findings The results indicate that positive emotions were positively related to task-related learning and interactional learning, both of which promote employee creativity. Task-related learning mediated the association between positive emotions and creativity. Nevertheless, negative emotions hindered employees from interactional learning and were negatively associated with creativity. Interactional learning mediated the association between negative emotions and creativity. Moreover, the interaction between positive and negative emotions was negatively associated with task-related learning. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on emotions and employee learning by demonstrating the value of using a functionalist perspective through different procedural mechanisms for employee outcomes and exploring the mediation effects of different learning behaviors in promoting creativity.


Abstract.—In 2003, more than 69 million people participated in recreational boating in the United States. The tenet that boating activity leads to higher aquatic stewardship ethics is often assumed since heightened environmental sensitivity has been correlated with significant positive contact with the outdoors. However, a direct link between boating and stewardship has not been substantiated. A review of current outreach efforts suggests that measures of boating-related stewardship could include preventing petroleum-based pollution, reducing marine debris, reducing sewage discharges, reducing air pollution, reducing habitat disturbance and physical destruction, and utilizing less harmful chemicals for boating activities. Measures of positive stewardship could also include boater’s involvement in, and support of, government programs and funding that promote these on-the-water behaviors. While these behaviors could be considered outward signs of good stewardship ethics, the motivation behind them would be more difficult to assess, thereby complicating the distinction between actual stewardship and behavior motivated by other forces. However, to the natural resources manager, motivation may not be as important as the resulting behavior, as long as the desired behaviors are sustained over time. A review of behaviors being promoted by the boating community (and applied examples), their utility as measures of aquatic stewardship, and the role of motivations are discussed.


Author(s):  
Dennis C. Daley ◽  
Antoine Douaihy

An emotion that is prolonged or persists over time is referred to as a mood. Emotions or moods that are too intense, extreme, or chronic and that cause problems in life often need to be addressed as part of ongoing substance use recovery. An overall goal of recovery is to reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, although any emotion can have a positive or negative effect depending on the circumstance. Negative emotional states can also be exacerbated by physical withdrawal, in addition to life problems, stresses, and interpersonal difficulties. These emotions are also associated with the initial period of becoming drug-free. The objectives of this chapter are to identify the role of negative and positive emotions in recovery and relapse, to help clients identify high-risk emotional issues (specific emotions or deficits in coping skills) to address in recovery, and to help clients learn appropriate strategies to manage emotions.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Saavedra Torres ◽  
Monika Rawal ◽  
Ramin Bagherzadeh

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of brand attachment as a relevant construct in customers’ evaluation after they face a service failure which impacts future consumer behaviors. It mainly answers the research question: does brand attachment cushion or amplify the effect of service failure on customers’ negative emotions? Design/methodology/approach A 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design was conducted. Data analysis was performed with ANOVA and moderated mediation. Findings Customer’s feelings toward a brand (brand attachment) that existed before a service failure occurred can regulate customer’s negative emotions especially when consumer attribute service failure to a controllable cause. This process minimizes the effect of service failure in customer’s satisfaction and consequently increase customer behaviors like word of mouth and loyalty intentions. Research limitations/implications Adding perceived intentionality as a service failure’s attribution could provide another layer of explanation of customer behavior. Also, an expanded study using a sector characterized by higher cost of change and permanent consumption could provide result’s generalizability. Practical implications Brand attachment should be included in the customer service strategy. In a service failure situation, brand attachment becomes part of the “service customer policy” helping customers to regulate their negative emotions. Originality/value This study fills the knowledge gap regarding the role of customers’ positive emotions toward brands when a service failure occurs. The current study extends branding literature by differentiating brand attachment role from coping tactics.


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