How low can we go: Court approval effects on public opinion

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveWe study what happens to individuals’ perceptions of the Supreme Court when they learn that public approval is high or low for the Court. We are interested in observing whether awareness of low(high) popular support for the Court can lead to further decreases(increases) in individual evaluations of the Court.MethodsWe construct a survey experiment with six conditions, including a control. Each condition displays a news headline individuals might encounter while scrolling the news or on social media, with varying levels of Supreme Court approval ratings. The conditions vary from 80 percent to less than 10 percent. After exposure to information about the Court's popularity, we ask participants about their specific and diffuse support of the Supreme Court.ResultsWe find that when a respondent is confronted with news that the Supreme Court's approval has risen or declined, their evaluations also increase or decrease. In addition, we find that diffuse support does not meaningfully change when reading headlines related to the Court's popular approval.ConclusionOur findings add to existing research regarding what can alter the important measure of Supreme Court‐specific support and affirm the difficulty in moving diffuse support.