How Voters Respond to Presidential Assaults on Checks and Balances: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Turkey

Why do voters support executive aggrandizement? One possible answer is that they do so because they think this will ease their preferred leader’s hand in putting their partisan vision into action, provided that the leader will continue winning elections. We study this phenomenon through a survey experiment in Turkey, by manipulating voters’ perceptions about the potential results of the first presidential election after a constitutional referendum of executive aggrandizement. We find that voters from both sides display what we call “elastic support” for executive aggrandizement; that is, they change previously revealed constitutional preferences in response to varying winning chances. This elasticity increases not only when citizens feel greater social distance to perceived political “others” (i.e., affective polarization) but also when voters are concerned about economic management in a potential post-incumbent era. Our findings contribute to the literature on how polarization and economic anxiety contribute to executive aggrandizement and democratic backsliding. 1

Ceding Power in Intra-Household Bargaining in Times of Economic Anxiety: An Experimental Study in Nepal

How do perceptions of one's relative economic status affect beliefs regarding gender roles? We conducted a 2019 survey experiment with approximately 2,000 adults in Nepal. Employing an established survey treatment called a priming experiment to subtly alter half of respondents' perceptions of their relative economic well-being, we ?find that increased feelings of relative deprivation make married women significantly less likely to support gender egalitarian perspectives. Women decrease their support for women making decisions over household expenditures, having equal control over household income, sharing household chores, and women working outside the home. A message randomly read to some women and designed to spur increased support for women's empowerment does little to alter beliefs regarding gender roles or to attenuate the effects of the relative deprivation prime. Despite the negative impacts on women's gender attitudes, however, we do not find a similar pattern among married men. The results underscore the deleterious effects that feelings of relative deprivation can have on women's own gender attitudes and provide a cautionary tale given trends toward greater economic inequality further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reactive Risk-Taking: Anxiety Regulation Via Approach Motivation Increases Risk-Taking Behavior

Experimental research and real-world events demonstrate a puzzling phenomenon—anxiety, which primarily inspires caution, sometimes precedes bouts of risk-taking. We conducted three studies to test whether this phenomenon is due to the regulation of anxiety via reactive approach motivation (RAM), which leaves people less sensitive to negative outcomes and thus more likely to take risks. In Study 1 ( N = 231), an achievement anxiety threat caused increased risk-taking on the Behavioral Analogue Risk Task (BART) among trait approach-motivated participants. Using electroencephalogram in Study 2 ( N = 97), an economic anxiety threat increased behavioral inhibition system-specific theta activity, a neural correlate of anxiety, which was associated with an increase in risk-taking on the BART among trait approach-motivated participants. In a preregistered Study 3 ( N = 432), we replicated the findings of Study 1. These results offer preliminary support for the reactive risk-taking hypothesis.

Subjective social well-being of employees with different socioeconomic statuses

Thepurposeof the research is to specify differences in the subjective social well-being of an organization’s employees with different socioeconomic statuses. The following methodshave been used to conduct the empirical research (n=38): theoretical analysis and generalization of scholarly views of the problem; empirical methods: “Questionnaire of Subjective Social Well-Being” (T.V. Danylchenko); “Questionnaire of Subjective Economic Well-Being” (V.O. Khashchenko); the methods of statistical analysis: correlation analysis; F-test. Results.The authors have established statistically significant correlations between the criteria of subjective social well-being and subjective economic well-being, namely, between the scales “Social visibil-ity”, “Social remoteness” and the indices of economic optimism, economic anxiety, and financial deprivation. It has been confirmed the statistical interdependence between the scales “Emotional acceptance” and “Family well-being index”. The research has determined differences between employees’ groups, which were divided according to socioeconomic status (managers and “performers”), on the following scales: “Social visibility”, “Positive social perceptions”, and “Economic optimism index”. Conclusions.The employees with higher socioeconomic status recognize their influence, the capability to settle problems, the availability of social ties, financial, economic, material, and social resources due to which they are confident when coping with stressful situations, have a positive economic expectation, a high level of efficient social functioning. The employees with low socioeconomic status are mainly characterized by unsatisfactory emotional and social relations, a failure to actively influence their social environment; they feel economic anxiety about their finances and the future.Keywords: social status, employees of organization, economic well-being, subjective economic well-being, mental well-being.

The Tribal Economy: Economic Perceptions, Economic Anxiety and the Prospects for Political Accountability

Whether American citizens hold presidents accountable for changes in the condition of the economy has increasingly been questioned. At the same time, the outcome of the 2016 election has been widely interpreted in economic terms. Press and pundits on both sides of the aisle have endorsed the “left behind” voter thesis suggesting that those who were economically dissatisfied or anxious voted against the incumbent party and thus elected Donald Trump. Likewise, some have argued that Trump would have won again in 2021 if not for the economic downturn caused by the COVID19 pandemic. In this study I use seven waves of nationally-representative panel data to examine change over time in individuals’ perceptions of the economy across the two most recent presidential election periods. I compare the magnitude of change from partisan rationalization of the economy to the magnitude of changes in perceptions due to the record-breaking decline in GDP during the year that COVID19 hit the US. My results provide little to no evidence that changes in perceptions due to real economic change were strong enough to overcome the effects of partisan rationalization. Given that the COVID19 recession was unusually severe, these results provide little reason for optimism that voters can hold leaders accountable for economic change.

The effects of economic anxiety on affective occupational commitment: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion

This study aims to examine whether emotional exhaustion has a mediating role in the effect of economic anxiety of tour guides on their affective occupational commitment. The research sample included 370 tour guides in Turkey. The data were collected through the questionnaire method. The collected data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS 22 and Process v3.3 macro extension. The mediating role of emotional exhaustion between economic anxiety and affective occupational commitment was calculated via the Bootstrapping procedure. It was found that there was a weak negative relationship between economic anxiety and affective occupational commitment, a positive relationship between economic anxiety and emotional exhaustion, and a negative relationship between affective occupational commitment and emotional exhaustion. Thus, emotional exhaustion reduces affective occupational commitment levels, and emotional exhaustion has a partial mediating role between economic anxiety and affective occupational commitment. This study is expected to raise awareness in tour guides, attract those who employ tour guides, and contribute to the relevant literature.

Counternarratives of Catastrophe

Chapter 4 investigates how analysts, policymakers, and political movements began to articulate a counternarrative of disaster capitalism as a frame for understanding transition. The disaster capitalism narrative suggests that Western institutions sought to exploit postsocialist recessions to impose harsh reforms for self-interested motives. Following the financial crisis of 2008, populist movements, which often advocated heterodox economic policies, emerged across the postsocialist world. The chapter shows the links between economic anxiety brought on by the failures of transition and the rhetoric and ideology of growing populist movements. It also points to China’s policy of long-term economic liberalization as a success when compared to the economic devastation that neoliberal reforms wrought on the postsocialist countries of East Europe and Central Asia.

Traditional Gender Differences Create Gaps in the Effect of COVID-19 on Psychological Distress of Japanese Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused Japanese workers psychological distress through crises of health, economics, and social relationships. To assess whether these effects are amplified by the gender bias that exists in Japan, we examined male and female worker’s psychological distress and difficulties during the pandemic. An online “COVID-19-related difficulties” questionnaire, based on item response theory, gathered responses from 3464 workers in October and November 2020. The workers’ psychological distress was found concerned to be significantly worse than before the pandemic. Basic stressors related to infection anxiety, economic anxiety, and restrictions on social interactions and outings. Men’s and women’s experiences of difficulties were consistent with traditional gender roles in Japan: men were more likely to face job-related stressors, such as economic insecurity and work-style changes; women were more likely to face non-job-related stressors, such as increased living costs and reduced social interactions. Policymakers and employers should consider the association between gender differences and industry types, and implement measures to strengthen the acceptability of mental health care.

Is It Us? Is It Them? Or Is It This Place? Predicting Civility in State Legislatures

While many scholars and analysts have observed a decline in civility in recent years, there have been few examinations of how political, economic, and institutional structures may partially explain inter-state differences in these trends. We suggest three potential explanations: (1) institutional structures, such as legislative professionalism and gubernatorial power, have created different contexts in which legislators build and maintain inter-personal relationships; (2) partisan competition has led to less bipartisan cooperation and contributed to strained relationships between members of different parties; and, (3) economic inequity and change has contributed to economic anxiety among citizens, contributing to conflict in legislative bodies as elected officials attempt to navigate emerging policy challenges. To test these explanations, we develop an innovative measure of civility using a national survey of lobbyists and a partial Multilevel Regression and Poststratification (MRP) design. Findings suggest that there is some validity to all three explanations, and signifying that civility is at least partially a result of structural issues.