Political Bias Research Articles

Bushranger Re-Enactments: Legend And Landscape

The re-enactment of events from Australia’s history as popular entertainment has dropped away in the twenty-first century. Whilst Old Sydney Town attracted crowds from 1973 through to 2003 with its daily parades of British red coats who marched down to an artificially constructed ‘Old Sydney Cove’, Australians today often have a more conflicted view of Australia’s colonial history. If national identity is maintained through acts of ‘remembering’, as suggested by Ian McBride (2001), the past can be a contested issue that impacts on what is accepted as popular representation. Yet the persistence of bushranger escapade re-enactments, though set in colonial times, suggests that issues beyond Australian national identity are at work in maintaining the popularity of such events. Bushrangers in Australia have fuelled imaginative representations in theatre and then later cinema since the early 1800s, with Andrew James Couzens (2019) stating that the Australian “bushranger legend … responds to the historic and mythic characteristics of outlawry” with “the outlaw as heroes”. This paper investigates three specific bushranger re-enactments. In Braidwood, south-eastern New South Wales, from 1865-1867 the Clark Gang, Tom and John Clark terrorized citizens and were known as ‘the bloodiest of bushrangers’. In 2017, the 150-year anniversary re-enactment of the Clark Gangs’ shooting up of the small country town of Braidwood attracted crowds keen to witness, as well as take part in the drama. The second re-enactment occurs regularly through performances by the Gympie Historical Re-enactment Society. Opting to entertain tourists, the group have staged a ‘Bushranger Show’ at numerous sites throughout inland regional Queensland. The third re-enactment occurred annually, until Covid struck, at Canowindra in northern New South Wales. In 1863 the notorious bushrangers, Ben Hall and Johnny Gilbert locked a group of villagers in the Canowindra pub, the re-enactment takes place at the site of these events, the now named Royal Hotel in the main street of Canowindra. These re-enactments are investigated through multiple lenses of performance, place, and politics. The site-specific nature of these performances positions them as specifically different than performances depicting Australian bushrangers in the cinema or theatre.

Discrimination in the Spotlight: The Effects of Political and Religious Bias on Consumer Behaviour and Labour Markets

There has been a surge in concern about political polarization and discrimination based on religious and political attitudes in the workplace. Using a nationally-representative sample of nearly 3,000 respondents, this paper presents new empirical evidence on the incidence of social hostilities in the workplace and the causal effects of providing information on consumer and labor market behavior across a range of indicators. Several empirical patterns emerge. First, nearly half of respondents have not shared their personal views about a social or political issue because of fear that sharing it would harm their career. Second, roughly a fifth of respondents have encountered discrimination for respectfully communicating their religious or political viewpoint. Third, these attitudes are negatively correlated with labor market and social media behavior: 40% of respondents say that perceptions of hostility against religious or political views make them much less likely to apply to a company, and 50% of respondents say that they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about adverse effects related with posting on social media about their religious and political attitudes. Finally, exposure to information about politicized topics is associated with a decline in respondents’ support for companies taking more activist stances. These results suggest that there are adverse and unintended consequences associated with religious and political discrimination, and companies could realize additional benefits by focusing on their core business activities.

The consistency principle: Crisis perceptions, partisanship and public support for democratic norms in comparative perspective

AbstractA growing body of research theorizes that partisanship can undermine democracy as citizens prioritize their political interests over abstract norms and values. We argue that crises might counteract intense partisanship by giving citizens clarity on the threats posed by rule of law violations. Examining the differential application of a law – a breach of democratic norms – we draw on an experiment embedded in representative surveys of Germany, the United States, Hungary and Poland to examine citizens’ sense of appropriate punishment for elites’ violation of a municipal mask‐wearing ordinance. We find evidence of partisan bias in citizens’ willingness to support punishment in all four countries. But, in the two consolidated democracies, we find that concern about the Covid‐19 crisis diminishes partisan biases in punishment preferences: citizens who are most concerned about the crisis also model the most consistency in their willingness to hold copartisans into account.

The Impact of Russian Troll Tweets: Analyzing Political Motivation in Tweets from the Internet Research Agency

This research investigates the impact of social media trolling on political events such as elections. The study utilizes the dataset of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian "troll factory" indicted by the US Justice Department in February 2018, to analyze tweets from 2012 to 2018, with the aim of creating a classification algorithm that will predict the political motivation of future tweets. The study involves running various classification algorithms, including Naive Bayes, K Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest, Histogram-based Gradient Boosting Classification Tree, and Light Gradient Boosting Machine. Data cleaning and categorization were done, assigning numeric values to each category. The resulting model scores and a breakdown of precision per category were analyzed. Word frequency analysis was also conducted to identify the most frequent words and understand the overall sentiment of the tweets and the topics targeted by the trolls. The research findings indicate that predicting the category of tweets is challenging, but the classification algorithms were able to do so with relatively good accuracy, especially for the NewsFeed and HashtagGamer categories. The study emphasizes the need for further research to improve accuracy of tweet classification algorithms and for social media platforms to continue their efforts to identify and remove troll accounts that aim to undermine political bias.

Assessing the Relationship Between Compulsory Voting and the Over-Representation of Extreme Parties

In this paper, we address the issue of partisan bias in compulsory voting systems. Given the current global trends – declining trust in mainstream political parties, rising support for left- and right-wing radicals, growing populism and anti-elite sentiment – we seek to determine how they manifest themselves in an environment where citizens are required to vote by law. To answer this question, a quasi-experimental design is proposed. The data show that forced activity does not affect either extreme forces support rates (from a cross-country perspective) or the rationality of their voters (from an individual-level perspective). As far as we know, this is the first attempt to generalize the role of compulsory voting in extreme politics, as well as the first one to refute this role with ample evidence.

TACKLING INDONESIA'S PLASTIC WASTE CRISIS: A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Abstrack : The escalating plastic waste crisis in Indonesia, fueled by population growth and widespread plastic usage, presents a critical environmental challenge. This study examines the Indonesian government's response to this crisis through a political lens, aiming to uncover the policy implications of its initiatives. Employing qualitative methods and an extensive literature review, this research delves into the government's strategies. Using the theory of national interest, the study focuses on policy implementation, diplomatic efforts, and public participation to set ambitious targets for waste reduction, aiming for a 30 percent decrease in overall waste by 2025. To achieve these objectives, the government has enacted various regulations and measures aimed at curbing plastic pollution. Furthermore, Indonesia has engaged in diplomatic endeavors, collaborating with international partners and participating in multilateral forums to address plastic pollution regionally and globally. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of public participation in mitigating the plastic waste crisis. It assesses the effectiveness of collaborative efforts in combating plastic pollution. Through an in-depth analysis of these factors, this study offers valuable insights into Indonesia's response to the plastic waste crisis, with the aim of informing future policymaking and facilitating effective strategies for plastic waste reduction in the country.

Partisanship in a Pandemic: Biased Voter Assessments of Past and Present Government Performance

Accountability relies on voters accurately evaluating government performance in addressing the important issues of the day. This requirement arguably applies to an even greater extent when addressing fundamental societal crises. However, partisanship can bias evaluations, with government partisans perceiving outcomes more favorably, or attributing less responsibility for bad outcomes. We examine partisan motivated reasoning in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, using panel data and a survey experiment of over 6000 respondents in which vignettes prime respondents about the UK government’s successes and failures in tackling the pandemic. We also propose a novel extension of the partisan bias thesis: partisans arrive at biased judgements of government competence by recalling the past performance of the government differently, according to whether or not their favored party held power at that time. We find that even in the relatively consensual partisan context of the UK’s response to Covid-19, where both major parties endorsed both lockdown and vaccination programs, there is evidence of both current and recall partisan biases: Opposition partisans are more likely to blame the government for negative outcomes and less likely to recall positive aspects of the government’s recent and past performance unless prompted to do so. Our findings have implications for understanding the limits of democratic accountability under crisis conditions.

Analyzing the Characteristics and Uniqueness of Tafsir Al-Ibriz by KH. Bisri Mustofa

This study aim to explores the characteristics and uniqueness of Tafsir Al-Ibriz, authored by KH. Bisri Mustofa, a prominent figure in the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) tradition. Tafsir Al-Ibriz stands out in the landscape of Quranic exegesis in Indonesia due to its distinctive approach and methodology. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach, this research delves into the interpretive methods, theological perspectives, and socio-cultural impacts of this tafsir. The findings indicate that Tafsir Al-Ibriz combines textual and contextual interpretation with a distinctive mystical and philosophical nuance, reflecting KH. Bisri Mustofa's unique perspective in understanding the messages of the Quran. Additionally, the tafsir demonstrates the influence of Sufi teachings in interpreting Quranic verses. Other unique characteristics of Tafsir Al-Ibriz include its emphasis on cultural preaching, particularly to the NU community, the use of Javanese language hierarchy known for its politeness (unggah-ungguh), the pesantren-specific style of translating Arabic texts, an objective interpretation of jihad devoid of political bias, adherence to the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, and a mystical yet scientific approach. The theoretical implications of this research provide new insights into the diversity of interpretative approaches to the Quran in the Islamic world, highlighting the spiritual and philosophical dimensions presented by Tafsir Al-Ibriz. These findings also contribute to our understanding of the role of Sufism in the Islamic exegesis tradition and how theological thought can influence Quranic interpretation. This study aims to lay the groundwork for further research on classical and contemporary tafsir works, as well as deepen the relevance of Sufi thought in contemporary Quranic understanding.

Театр как «наблюдение второго порядка»: опыт Никласа Лумана

The article describes a viewpoint on theatre arts from the perspective of the Systems theory developed by the social philosopher Niklas Luhmann. The target of the study is theatre as a part of the social system. The theatre, being extremely dialogical and “demonstrative” kind of art, is described in terms of communication: self-reference, hetero-reference, autopoiesis, operational closure, first-and second-order observation. The paper aims to consider the theatre as a subsystem of the social system “art”, focusing on the notion of “second-order observation” which presumably can be a key to understanding the contemporary theatre form. Despite its social significance theatre has rarely been an object of social and philosophical studies. One of the aims of this article is to attempt to fill this gap. Luhmann avoided the political bias which was not always possible for social philosophers of the mid-twentieth century, so his view on the space and structure of theatre may also be of interest to contemporary researchers.

Partisan Bias in Episodes of Political Violence

Imagine two incidents of political violence. In the first, you share political affiliation with the victim. In the second, they reside in the opposite party. How would this minor change – a shifting label, the difference of a word – impact your reaction? This article offers empirical insight through an experiment: U.S. participants read a mock college controversy, where a student sent death threats to, and doxed, a professor. The treatment varied whether the perpetrator described the professor as a Democrat, Republican, or used otherwise non-descript (e.g., “political”) adjectives. A posttreatment survey then measured respondents’ discrete emotions, the penalties they preferred the student receive, and their partisan group identity strength. Participants who read about violence against a copartisan victim showed a statistically significant increase in preferred penalty severity. But violence against an outparty victim mirrored the control, with subjects reacting as if they didn’t know the political affiliation of anyone involved. Posttreatment measures also demonstrated the potential for anxiety (but not anger or partisan strength) to mediate this underlying partisan bias.

Extension and Revision of Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanisms and Domestic Real Investment in Nigeria: A Time Series Study Between 1981-2015 by Lucky Anyike Lucky & Uzah Cheta Kingsley.

The study by Lucky Anyike and Uzah Cheta Kingsley examines the impact of monetary policy on domestic real investment in Nigeria, using Gross Fixed Capital Formation to Gross Domestic Product ratio as a proxy for domestic real investment. The study uses various independent variables, including the maximum lending rate, credit to private sector as a percentage of GDP, naira to US dollar exchange rate, savings rate, monetary policy rate, prime lending rate, and Treasury bill rate. The authors conclude that monetary policy has a significant effect on the domestic real investment rate. The extension of this paper examines the impact of both monetary and fiscal policy on domestic real investment in Nigeria, while also considering the influence of political biases and the fact that a significant portion of fiscal policy spending may be allocated to current expenditures rather than capital expenditures. While mainstream economic theory suggests that fiscal policy should have a positive effect on real investment rate, this theory may be challenged in Nigeria due to the specific context and allocation of fiscal resources. We also examine the effect of monetary policy on domestic real investment rate in Nigeria by incorporating additional variables in our analysis.

Towards misinformation mitigation on social media: novel user activity representation for modeling societal acceptance

Intervention-based mitigation methods have become a common way to fight misinformation on Social Media (SM). However, these methods depend on how information spreads are modeled in a diffusion model. Unfortunately, there are no realistic diffusion models or enough diverse datasets to train diffusion prediction functions. In particular, there is an urgent need for mitigation methods and labeled datasets that capture the mutual temporal incidences of societal bias and societal engagement that drive the spread of misinformation. To that end, this paper proposes a novel representation of users’ activity on SM. We further embed these in a knapsack-based mitigation optimization approach. The optimization task is to find ways to mitigate political manipulation by incentivizing users to propagate factual information. We have created PEGYPT, a novel Twitter dataset to train a novel multiplex diffusion model with political bias, societal engagement, and propaganda events. Our approach aligns with recent theoretical findings on the importance of societal acceptance of information spread on SM as proposed by Olan et al. (Inf Syst Front 1–16, 2022). Our empirical results show significant differences from traditional representations, where the latter assume users’ exposure to misinformation can be mitigated despite their political bias and societal acceptance. Hence, our work opens venues for more realistic misinformation mitigation.

Do local leaders prioritize the poor: Identifying the distributive preferences of village politicians in India

We investigate the distributive preferences of elected leaders in local democracies, who are tasked with ”everyday assistance” and personally know their constituents. In this setting, economic distribution is driven more by leader preferences and less by efficiency concerns, as in the lower information setting typically described in the literature. In local democracy, we argue voters can explicitly select leaders who prefer to distribute to a broad group of supporters, who further conform to norms of targeting the most needy among supporters. In this article, we develop a novel behavioral measure that isolates leaders’ distributive preferences from direct electoral benefit, which we implement in villages across the Indian state of Rajasthan. We find elected leaders prefer to distribute 94% more to supporters and 17% more to supporters one standard deviation below the mean village wealth. This suggests local elections are consistent with significant distribution to the poor, albeit with political biases.

Bourbon, Black and White: Bourbon and Race in America, 1935-1975

ABSTRACT This article explores the cultural history of bourbon in the United States between the 1930s and the 1970s through the lenses of race, politics, and consumerism. Several related trends pushed bourbon’s cultural history in new directions during this time. Like many popular consumer products, Americans endowed bourbon with complex meanings that reflected imagined, contested notions of history and racial identities and hierarchies. As Black and white Americans bought, sold, drank, and talked about bourbon, they also grappled with racial conflict and social change. Distillers crafted new appeals to Black Americans to spur sales. Mass consumerism grew in importance as an arena of activism after the Second World War. Black activists targeted the bourbon industry in their ongoing fight against commercial racism and segregation. Bourbon became a touchstone in the politics of civil rights. Black and white commentators invoked contrasting bourbon symbolism and tropes in their civil rights rhetoric. These trends and dialogues flavored the meanings that Americans consumed as they drank bourbon. All the while, bourbon whiskey became a staple of the upwardly mobile, consumption-driven lifestyles of the middle and professional classes, regardless of their racial identities. To tell these stories, the article relies on bourbon-related advertising, journalism, and commentary in the Black and white presses, corporate market research materials and correspondence, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) archival records.

Evaluating Twitter’s algorithmic amplification of low-credibility content: an observational study

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered recommender systems play a crucial role in determining the content that users are exposed to on social media platforms. However, the behavioural patterns of these systems are often opaque, complicating the evaluation of their impact on the dissemination and consumption of disinformation and misinformation. To begin addressing this evidence gap, this study presents a measurement approach that uses observed digital traces to infer the status of algorithmic amplification of low-credibility content on Twitter over a 14-day period in January 2023. Using an original dataset of ≈ 2.7 million posts on COVID-19 and climate change published on the platform, this study identifies tweets sharing information from low-credibility domains, and uses a bootstrapping model with two stratifications, a tweet’s engagement level and a user’s followers level, to compare any differences in impressions generated between low-credibility and high-credibility samples. Additional stratification variables of toxicity, political bias, and verified status are also examined. This analysis provides valuable observational evidence on whether the Twitter algorithm favours the visibility of low-credibility content, with results indicating that, on aggregate, tweets containing low-credibility URL domains perform better than tweets that do not across both datasets. However, this effect is largely attributable to a difference in high-engagement, high-followers tweets, which are very impactful in terms of impressions generation, and are more likely receive amplified visibility when containing low-credibility content. Furthermore, high toxicity tweets and those with right-leaning bias see heightened amplification, as do low-credibility tweets from verified accounts. Ultimately, this suggests that Twitter’s recommender system may have facilitated the diffusion of false content by amplifying the visibility of low-credibility content with high-engagement generated by very influential users.

Fact-opinion differentiation

Statements of fact can be proved or disproved with objective evidence, whereas statements of opinion depend on personal values and preferences. Distinguishing between these types of statements contributes to information competence. Conversely, failure at fact-opinion differentiation potentially brings resistance to corrections of misinformation and susceptibility to manipulation. Our analyses show that on fact-opinion differentiation tasks, unsystematic mistakes and mistakes emanating from partisan bias occur at higher rates than accurate responses. Accuracy increases with political sophistication. Affective partisan polarization promotes systematic partisan error: As views grow more polarized, partisans increasingly see their side as holding facts and the opposing side as holding opinions.

Identification with an anti-system party undermines diffuse political support: The case of Alternative for Germany and trust in the Federal Constitutional Court

The rise of the far right is increasingly raising the question of whether partisanship can have negative consequences for democracy. While issues such as partisan bias and affective polarization have been extensively researched, little is known about the relationship between identification with anti-system parties and diffuse system support. I address this gap by introducing a novel indicator and utilising the GESIS panel dataset, which tracks the rise of a new party, ”Alternative for Germany” (AfD) from 2013, when the party was founded, to 2017, when the AfD, now transformed into a right-wing populist and anti-system party, entered the federal parliament for the first time. Employing a panel fixed effects design, I demonstrate that identification with ”Alternative for Germany” reduces trust in the Federal Constitutional Court by a considerable margin. These findings are robust across various alternative specifications, suggesting that the effects of anti-system party identification should not be dismissed.

How regional attitudes towards immigration shape the chance to obtain asylum: Evidence from Germany

Abstract Asylum recognition rates in advanced democracies differ not only across states but also vary within them, translating into fluctuating individual chances to obtain protection. Existing studies on the determinants of these regional inequities typically rely on aggregate data. Utilizing a German refugee survey and leveraging a quasi-natural experiment arising from state-based allocation rules tied to national dispersal policies, we test two explanations for the perplexing regional differences. Drawing on principal–agent models of administrative decision-making, we test whether asylum decision-makers consciously or unconsciously comply with regional political preferences between 2015 and 2017 in Germany, one of the major European destination countries for refugee migration. We furthermore explore whether such biased decision-making amplifies in times of organizational stress as suggested by the statistical discrimination theory. Using mixed-effects logistic regressions, our analyses confirm a lower approval probability in regions with more immigration-averse residents or governments. We cannot confirm, however, that this association is mediated by high workloads or large knowledge gaps. Our results thus suggest that regional political biases affect the individual chance of asylum-seekers to obtain protection irrespective of temporal administrative conditions.

The Political Economy of Ethnic Politics in Nigeria

Ethnicity is not evil; neither is ethnic politics generally bad, but it possesses elements that can hinder development in states with low national integration and political bias. This paper examined the impact of ethnic politics on the Nigerian political economy, considering the practices of ethnic interest that have tended to relegate the national interest to sub-ethnic interest, thus hindering the Nigerian state's growth and development. The Marxian political economy theory was adopted to understand the political economy of the ethnic political game playing out as a class of the politicians and the masses. The qualitative research method was used, and data were analysed using the content analysis method based on secondary data. The finding showed that what gave rise to and fueled ethnic bias politics in Nigeria are imbalanced structure and absence of good governance. This further created polarisation and problems of trust among ethnic groups. The paper recommended inclusiveness and fairness in formulating policies and allocating political cum economic values/resources among ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Extension and Revision of Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanisms and Domestic Real Investment in Nigeria: A Time Series Study Between 1981-2015 by Lucky Anyike Lucky & Uzah Cheta Kingsley

The study by Lucky Anyike and Uzah Cheta Kingsley examines the impact of monetary policy on domestic real investment in Nigeria, using Gross Fixed Capital Formation to Gross Domestic Product ratio as a proxy for domestic real investment. The study uses various independent variables, including the maximum lending rate, credit to private sector as a percentage of GDP, naira to US dollar exchange rate, savings rate, monetary policy rate, prime lending rate, and Treasury bill rate. The authors conclude that monetary policy has a significant effect on the domestic real investment rate. The extension of this paper examines the impact of both monetary and fiscal policy on domestic real investment in Nigeria, while also considering the influence of political biases and the fact that a significant portion of fiscal policy spending may be allocated to current expenditures rather than capital expenditures. While mainstream economic theory suggests that fiscal policy should have a positive effect on real investment rate, this theory may be challenged in Nigeria due to the specific context and allocation of fiscal resources. We also examine the effect of monetary policy on domestic real investment rate in Nigeria by incorporating additional variables in our analysis.