Suchergebnisse

Data on selective exposure to persuasive COMM's are critically reviewed in terms of the following hyp's: (1) COMM's mainly reach those who already agree with the position advocated; (2) people prefer supportive to nonsupportive information; (3) selectivity increases with greater cognitive dissonance; & (4) selectivity declines with greater confidence in one's own opinion. Most data support hypothesis (1), but the effect is minor & its documentation surprisingly weak. The evidence does not support the last 3 hyp's at all. Further res is advocated on factors that do affect exposure. Evidence on the effects of educ'al background, previous history of exposure, & information utility is discussed in this connection. AA.

The partisan realignment of the White South, which transformed this region from being solidly Democratic to being the base of the Republican Party, has been the focus of much scholarship. Exactly how it occurred is unclear. Widespread individual-level attitude changes would be contrary to the well-known within-person stability of party identification. However, according to the impressionable-years hypothesis, events that occur during adolescence and early adulthood may have a lasting impact on later political attitudes. This would suggest that cohort replacement may be driving partisan realignment. We test this possibility using data from the American National Election Studies from 1960 to 2008. Consistent with the impressionable-years hypothesis, Southern Whites from the pre-Civil Rights cohort (born before 1936) maintained their Democratic Party identification longer than their younger counterparts. However, all cohorts in the South have changed their partisan attitudes at comparable rates over time, contrary to the impressionable-years hypothesis. These data suggest that the partisan realignment of the South was driven by both cohort replacement and within-cohort attitude change. More targeted case studies of older cohorts living through the civil rights era, and of younger cohorts in the post-Reagan era, yield results generally consistent with the impressionable-years hypothesis. More generally, our findings suggest that very large scale events are required to disrupt the normal continuity of party identification across the life span. Adapted from the source document.

This study tests for long-term continuities in the politics of race. It uses a quasi-experimental method to examine the role of racial issues in presidential voting in the present era. It identifies two earlier historical eras in which it is generally agreed racial issues were a central point of partisan division in national politics: the immediately antebellum and civil rights periods. It uses presidential voting data to demonstrate continuity in the distribution of the vote across states between those two eras, and between both eras and the present. The pattern of the vote has been quite different in eras when race has not been a central national political issue. We argue that these data are consistent with the view that divisions over race continue to underlie partisan preferences to a significant degree in the present era.

The reactions of white US voters to black candidates is examined through an analysis of the 1982 Calif gubernatorial elections, in which George Deukmejian, a white conservative Republican, defeated Tom Bradley, a black Democrat, by the narrow margin of 100,000 votes out of almost 7.5 million. The election is considered a particularly useful case study because: had Bradley won he would have held the highest political office of any black in US history; pre-election polls consistently predicted a Bradley victory, leading some to argue that the outcome indicated substantial covert racism among white Californians; & Bradley's record as mayor of Los Angeles was one of moderation on racial questions & his campaign did not include overt appeals to minority groups. It is hypothesized that the personal attributes of black candidates & the electoral context condition the reactions of white voters, which, in the case of Bradley, meant that his race diminished in importance relative to other political considerations in providing reasons for opposing him. Cues for racial voting are discussed in relation to the Deukmejian-Bradley contest, & a measure for racial voting outlined. Analysis of data from 2 pre-election polls of registered voters carried out by the Los Angeles Times & the Field Instit (N = 833 & 730, respectively) indicates that while overt resentment about governmental support for black demands reduced support for Bradley, it had a similar effect on voting for white liberal candidates, implying that Bradley's race in & of itself did not cause many whites to vote against him. Underlying racial attitudes were found to contribute to the defeat of Democratic candidates, since negative feelings toward minorities formed one element in a cluster of conservative beliefs, the holders of which voted Republican; Bradley's race, however, was not an important catalyst for racial voting. Covert racism arguments are rejected, while the importance of the candidate's personal characteristics & the context in which the election takes place are emphasized. 5 Tables, 32 References. F. S. J. Ledgister

The 'positivity bias' is a term used to describe the consistent favorable evaluation of public figures found in surveys over the past forty years. Several possible artifactual explanations for this bias were explored, focusing on the survey instrument itself. Two experiments (subjects for the first experiment were 298 undergraduates administered a 35-minute questionnaire, & for the second, 429 residents of the Los Angeles metropolitan area given a 15-minute interview) varied the labeling & ordering of scale endpoints, the affective value of the initial context evaluated, & the presence or absence of a prestigious job title associated with the name of the public figure. None of the variations produced significantly different levels of positivity than the standard control condition used in each experiment. 3 Tables. Modified AA.