Conservative Counterparts Research Articles

Politicization of fake news debates and citizen attitudes towards fake news and its regulation

As fake news becomes a pressing social concern, governments from many countries have considered legislation against fake news. This study examined how citizens formed opinions about fake news and an anti-fake news bill in South Korea where political elites provide polarized discourse regarding fake news and associated regulatory politics. Progressive leaders more intensely criticized fake news and proposed an anti-fake news bill whereas conservative leaders vehemently opposed the bill. The analysis of survey data showed that elite polarization may affect citizens’ perceptions of fake news and attitudes toward anti-fake news legislation. Strong partisans tended to believe that fake news is more hostile toward their in-group and had stronger third-person perceptions, and such perceptions were positively related to the support of anti-fake news legislation. Moreover, progressive voters tended to have stronger hostile and third-person perceptions than conservative counterparts, reflecting endorsement of their in-group leaders’ positions. News reception about the bill further increased the gap in the level of support for the bill between progressive and conservative citizens.

Selling hope versus hate: the impact of partisan social media messaging on social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study aims to examine the role of hope and hate in political leaders’ messages in influencing liberals versus conservatives’ social-distancing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the increasing political partisanship across the world today, using the appropriate message framing has important implications for social and public policy.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use two Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods – a pretrained package (HateSonar) and a classifier built to implement our supervised neural network-based model architecture using RoBERTa – to analyze 61,466 tweets by each US state’s governor and two senators with the goal of examining the association between message factors invoking hate and hope and increased or decreased social distancing from March to May 2020. The authors examine individuals’ social-distancing behaviors (the amount of nonessential driving undertaken) using data from 3,047 US counties between March 13 and May 31, 2020, as reported by Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports and the New York Times repository of COVID-19 data.FindingsThe results show that for conservative state leaders, the use of hate increases nonessential driving of state residents. However, when these leaders use hope in their speech, nonessential driving of state residents decreases. For liberal state leaders, the use of hate displays a directionally different result as compared to their conservative counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsAmid the emergence of new analytic techniques and novel data sources, the findings demonstrate that the use of global positioning systems data and social media analysis can provide valuable and precise insights into individual behavior. They also contribute to the literature on political ideology and emotion by demonstrating the use of specific emotion appeals in targeting specific consumer segments based on their political ideology.Practical implicationsThe findings have significant implications for policymakers and public health officials regarding the importance of considering partisanship when developing and implementing public health policies. As partisanship continues to increase, applying the appropriate emotion appeal in messages will become increasingly crucial. The findings can help marketers and policymakers develop more effective social marketing campaigns by tailoring specific appeals given the political identity of the consumer.Originality/valueUsing Neural NLP methods, this study identifies the specific factors linking social media messaging from political leaders and increased compliance with health directives in a partisan population.

Transphobic Truth Markets: Comparing Trans-hostile Discourses in British Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist and US Right-wing Movements

British “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist” (TERF) discourse has often been contextualised in fringe radical feminist thought, but its similarities to and alliances with right-wing trans-exclusionary movements in the US are notable (McClean, 2020). To understand the place of TERF discourse in an international wave of trans-hostility, it is necessary to understand how it converges with and differs from explicitly conservative counterparts. I place TERF discourse in comparison to trans-exclusionary discourses of the American Right (AR) using a Critical Frame Analysis, investigating the extent of shared themes and the role of ontological discourses across cases. I find that TERF and AR discourses converge heavily on frames and have a shared ontology, but draw on different repertoires to bolster their claims. Combining Harsin’s (2014) truth markets and Smith’s (1995) ideological code theory, I show how an ideological-code-like structure demonises and ontologically delegitimises trans people, demonstrating how reactionary frames can be granted cross-ideological appeal.

Partisanship and divided perceptions of the American and British flags

National flags embody their nations’ core values and beliefs but they may be perceived differently in today’s increasingly polarized societies. We conducted two studies ( N = 768) in the United States to examine partisan differences between Democrats and Republicans, and a third study in the United Kingdom ( N = 509) between supporters of the Labour and Conservative parties. Across all three studies, we consistently found that Democrat and Labour participants (compared to their Republican and Conservative counterparts) associated their respective national flags with less positive and more negative affect and concepts. Studies 2 and 3 further showed that these partisan divides were driven by how much people associated their national flags with their political outgroup. For Democrats and Labour participants, associating their national flags with their political outgroup predicted less positive and more negative affect, but associating the flags with their political ingroup predicted more positive and less negative affect.

Authoritarian Opposition? Authoritarian Disposition and Resistance to Public Health Mitigation Strategies During COVID-19

Government restrictions intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19—such as “lockdowns,” mask mandates, and vaccine passports—produced intense resentment among some groups and led to resistance, defiance, and social unrest in many countries. To better understand the roots of this opposition, we examine the role of dispositional authoritarianism as a psychological motivator of participation in anti-restriction protests and support for the groups that engaged in such actions. Because obedience to authority is commonly identified as a core feature of authoritarianism, existing studies have suggested authoritarians should be more likely to endorse pandemic restrictions and oppose anti-government dissent. However, we propose the alternative hypothesis: individuals with authoritarian dispositions are more likely to oppose pandemic restrictions and more likely to express support for pandemic dissidents (e.g., anti-vax and anti-lockdown groups). Data from three surveys deployed in the United States and United Kingdom support our hypotheses, demonstrating a counterintuitive relationship between dispositional authoritarianism and opposition to public health authorities during the pandemic. We further find that dispositional authoritarianism produces an intriguing misalignment between ideology and support for pandemic restrictions among those on the left, leading liberals who score high in authoritarianism to mirror the attitudes and behaviors of their conservative counterparts.

Controlling the Past to Control the Future: Christian Nationalism and Mandatory Patriotic Education in Public Schools

AbstractRecent debates about whether educators should teach America's racist history have sparked activism and legislation to ensure students are taught American history in such a way that promotes “patriotism,” amplifying cherished national myths, emphasizing American exceptionalism, and erasing negative historical facts. Building on insights from both social dominance theory and Christian nationalism research, we propose Christian nationalism combines legitimizing myths that whitewash America's past with authoritarian impulses and thus seeks to enforce “patriotic” content in public school classrooms. We also theorize this connection varies across racial, partisan, and ideological identities. Data from a nationally‐representative survey of Americans affirm Christian nationalism is by far the leading predictor Americans believe “We should require public school teachers to teach history in a way that promotes patriotism.” This association is consistent across race (possibly due to divergent meanings of both “Christian nationalism” and “patriotism” across groups), but varies by partisanship and ideological identity for whites. Specifically, Christian nationalism brings whites who identify with the ideological and political left into complete alignment with their conservative counterparts who are already more likely to support mandatory patriotic education. Our findings provide critical context for ongoing battles over public‐school curricula and education's role in perpetuating social privilege.

Symplectic Integration Schemes for Systems With Nonlinear Dissipation

In previous work a variational integration scheme for mechanical systems containing linear dissipation was developed (Limebeer et al., 2020). The key idea is to use a transmission line as the solution to a power-balancing control problem—in the physics literature controllers of this type are known as “heat baths.” The power-balanced closed-loop system is thereby made amenable to analysis with Hamilton's principle. As a consequence, variational principles can be used to find symplectic integration schemes for dissipative systems. The outcome of this work is a coherent physical explanation as to why variational/symplectic integration algorithms for the open dissipative system can perform as well as their conservative counterparts. An important application of these integration algorithms is the solution of long-time-horizon optimal control problems. In this article, these ideas are extended to systems with smooth memoryless nonlinear dissipation. This extension employs a nonlinear lossless transmission line, which is again the solution to a power-balancing control problem. As in the case of linear dissipation, the resulting variational integration schemes are demonstrated to have excellent numerical properties, which are significantly less demanding computationally than their implicit nonvariational counterparts.

Political ideology and nuclear energy: Perception, proximity, and trust

AbstractPolitical ideology is an increasingly powerful force in support of public policy. Historically, nuclear energy has found more support among political conservatives. This study updates the literature on political ideology and support for nuclear energy by examining how political ideology is associated with perceptions of nuclear energy and trust of nuclear information sources. After excluding participants with incomplete data, and participants within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor, the analytical sample size for the analysis examining political ideology and perceptions of nuclear energy was 4153. The analytical sample includes a total of 1035 participants within a 50‐mile radius of INL, 710 participants from within Idaho who lived further than 50 miles from INL, 1899 participants from other states (more than 50 miles from a nuclear reactor), and 509 Non‐Idaho participants living within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor. Logistic regression was used to determine how political ideology was associated with perceptions of nuclear energy and trust in different sources regarding radioactive waste, after controlling for demographics and location. While liberal participants near INL were less favorable towards nuclear energy, and more trusting in impact scientists to tell the truth about radioactive waste than their conservative counterparts, this was not consistent across the US. Our findings reveal the complexity of political ideology and the perceptions of nuclear issues and how proximity influences perceptions. The perceptions of political moderates were particularly important in providing a more complex understanding of political ideology and nuclear energy issues.

The illusion of transparency: the political double standard in city credit ratings

Abstract Ratings proliferate in social life though underlying biases in how ratings are constructed are obscured. Rating criteria—formal a priori standards about the relevant factors for an evaluation—hold promise for creating transparency, eliminating biases and generating meritocratic evaluations through standardization and uncertainty reduction. Yet, little is known about whether criteria in fact eliminate biases or introduce new complexities. Using original data on credit ratings for 109 US city governments from 2002 to 2009, I test whether a rating agency’s rating criteria is applied evenly across cities. Results provide evidence of a political double standard where liberal-leaning cities are evaluated according to a more strict application of rating criteria requiring these cities to have higher performance for similar ratings compared to their conservative counterparts. These findings highlight a mechanism producing inequality between cities and demonstrate how generating meritocratic and unbiased evaluations requires more than the existence and transparency of rating criteria.

The “company politics” of social stances: How conservative vs. liberal consumers respond to corporate political stance-taking

While prior research has made progress in addressing the role of political ideology in marketing, an important question remains regarding corporate political stance-taking (CPST): how does a consumer’s political ideology (conservative vs. liberal) affect responses to companies’ stances that agree vs. disagree with the consumer’s ideology? We address this question through the lens of balance theory, finding that liberal (vs. conservative) consumers have stronger reactions to companies’ stances due to the priority placed on CPST. That is, liberals exhibit wider variance between agreement and disagreement with companies’ stances across consumer responses (patronage intentions and willingness to pay) than their conservative counterparts. In line with balance theory, attitude toward the company mediates the results.

Entrepreneurial orientation and SMEs success factors

Purpose. Drawing on the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the aspect of top management style, this study attempts to find the factors that lead small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to success in business. Methodology. In this study, a survey of 110 Latvian and Swedish forestry contracting companies’ top managers was conducted. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied to assess the companies’ performance and the factors driving the companies’ success. A questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale, principal component analysis, the Mann–Whitney U test and text coding were used to test the hypotheses and answer the research questions. Findings. EO-inherent SMEs, compared to their conservative counterparts, have a significantly higher number of employees, turnover, profit and return on asset rate. The differentiating success factors for EO-inherent SMEs are (a) employees’ contribution, treatment of employees and teamwork, (b) quality of manufacturing services and efficiency of company internal processes, (c) activity in improving collaboration processes with the buyer, (d) control of company operations, (e) the use of new technologies and machinery in manufacturing, and (f) high demands of manufacturing service buyers. Meanwhile, unfair competition, difficulties in raising funds and overall political instability in the country are considered as hindering factors for the success of EO-inherent SMEs. Value. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial orientation in the SME context, characterising the success factors and differentiating style of SMEs’ top managers in creating a growing and high-performing company. Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation, success factors, performance, forestry SMEs. Paper category: research paper.

Changing Times, Shifting Attitudes: Explaining Americans’ Attitudes Toward Same‐Sex Relations From 1973 to 20181

Using age‐period‐cohort modeling (APC), scholars suggest that the profound increase in Americans’ acceptance of same‐sex relations is mainly explained by “period” effects, in which people have become more tolerant of same‐sex relations over time regardless of their age or birth cohort. To further explain the patterns of attitude changes, this research situates period effects in the specific sociohistorical boundaries unique to the development of same‐sex issues in the United States. This contextualization of period effects also sheds light on how and why attitudes have shifted at different paces for various sociodemographic groups. Using data from the 1973 to 2018 General Social Survey, the ordered logistical models reveal that significant period effects have emerged only after the height of the AIDS Epidemic. The surge of public acceptance after this period was accompanied by heightened demographic and cultural polarization, with changes in attitudes for black and for politically and religiously conservative individuals shifting at a much slower pace than their nonblack and less conservative counterparts. Such a polarization in attitudes reflects the ever‐changing association between sociodemographic characteristics and mainstream cultural beliefs about same‐sex relations over time.

Race, religious identities, and environmental activism

We employ three national representative samples to examine the moderating effect race has on the relationship between religious identities and environmental identities and behaviors. By and large, religious identities are more consistently associated with the environmental considerations of Whites than it does for African Americans and Hispanics. Among Whites, religious liberals are more likely than their religiously conservative counterparts to; identify with the environmental movement, make environmentally conscious consumer choices, and be active in the environmental movement. Such is not the case, however, for African Americans and Hispanics: religion very rarely associates with their environmental identities and behaviors. In explaining our findings, we discuss the role that the disparate racial experiences of these groups may play in accounting for the differential role religion plays in their environmental identities and behaviors.

The Conflation of Single Mothers and Prostitutes in Morocco

The Conflation of Single Mothers and Prostitutes in Morocco

Ideology versus Ethicality in the Enactment of Obamacare: Justice and Autonomy as Contested Issues

One of the most politically debatable issues in America is the reform of the healthcare sector. The heated dispute is conducted by liberals and conservatives. Accordingly, among the programs that helped divide the American ideological spectrums was the enactment and implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare) in 2010. The law received unconditional acclaim by liberals and severe criticism from conservatives. The present paper attempts at analyzing both the impetus that lies behind the political division over the law and the conformity of the two ideological spectrums with major public health ethical principles including justice and the respect for persons' autonomy. Through taking Obamacare as a case study, this research uses the Metaphor Theory adopted by George Lakoff in order to trace the endeavor behind the liberal and conservative policies, and employs two key contested principles included in a relevant theory known as Principlism, namely justice and autonomy in an attempt to assess the extent of the liberals' and conservatives' compatibility with public health ethics. This study sums upwith the idea that the liberal moralists show more conformity to public health ethics highlighted by the justice and autonomy principles compared to their conservative counterparts.

The confident conservative: Ideological differences in judgment and decision-making confidence.

In this research, we document the existence of broad ideological differences in judgment and decision-making confidence and examine their source. Across a series of 14 studies (total N = 4,575), we find that political conservatives exhibit greater judgment and decision-making confidence than do political liberals. These differences manifest across a wide range of judgment tasks, including both memory recall and "in the moment" judgments. Further, these effects are robust across different measures of confidence and both easy and hard tasks. We also find evidence suggesting that ideological differences in closure-directed cognition might in part explain these confidence differences. Specifically, conservatives exhibit a greater motivation to make rapid and efficient judgments and are more likely to "seize" on an initial response option when faced with a decision. Liberals, conversely, tend to consider a broader range of alternative response options before making a decision, which in turn undercuts their confidence relative to their more conservative counterparts. We discuss theoretical implications of these findings for the role of ideology in social judgment and decision-making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Religious Ideology, Race, and Health Care Policy Attitudes

AbstractUsing two national general population and one clergy survey, we examined racial differences in the association between religious theology and health care policy attitudes. We find that controlling for religious faith, political partisanship, and social-demographic characteristics, religious theology more strongly associates with White health care policy attitudes than it is for Blacks and Hispanics. Whereas theologically liberal Whites are more likely than their conservative counterparts to support universal healthcare and/or Obamacare, we observed no such relationship among Blacks and Hispanics. This is true of both the general population and clergy.

Dating attitudes and behaviors of American and Chinese college students: A partial replication

ABSTRACT Research reveals a vibrant courtship process during adolescence in the United States. Fewer studies exist, however, on the courtship process in China, a country which is undergoing tremendous economic change, and even fewer studies employ a cross-cultural approach to examine dating during adolescence. One such study from nearly two decades ago found more liberal attitudes and behavior regarding dating among American college students compared to their relatively conservative Chinese counterparts. In the same spirit, the present study investigates similarities and differences in the dating process between American and Chinese college students and changes over time. The Chinese sample (N = 240) was collected at convenience from three Chinese universities located in two large cities in central China. The American sample (N = 405) was gathered from a 4-year public university located in the Mid-Atlantic. The findings reveal that considerable differences in courtship processes continue to persist despite unprecedented economic development in China. The American students continue to use a dating script that is far more liberal. They also initiate the dating stage at much younger ages. Although not exhibiting norms similar to the American students, the Chinese students were not strongly shackled to conservative Chinese traditions either. Cultural differences in approaches to dating, family and education are likely responsible for the persistent gaps.

CEO Political Ideology, Shareholder Primacy, and Dividend Policy

We argue that CEOs have different attitudes toward the firm's stakeholders and that these differences in attitudes affect the firm's decision making. We hypothesize that these differences stem from differences in political ideology: Liberal CEOs, as compared to their conservative counterparts, pay less attention to shareholders and this is reflected in dividend policy. To test the validity of our hypothesis, we measure CEO ideology by political donations. We study the CEOs of S&P 500 firms during 1997-2014 and find that firms with liberal CEOs are less likely to pay dividends and have significantly lower dividend payouts. In contrast, conservative CEOs pay more dividends, even if this requires redundancies.

Coherent control of dissipative dynamics in a periodically driven lattice array

We find a different mechanism for suppression of decay in an open one-dimensional lattice system, which originates from a dark Floquet state, a sink state to which the system is asymptotically driven, whose overall probability is determined only by the parameters of the periodic driving field. The zero-quasienergy of dark Floquet state has been shown to be not a real zero, but a vanishingly small negative imaginary number which will cause undesirable physical effect in long-time evolution of quantum states, which is extremely different from the conservative counterpart. Another important finding is that the value of the system's effective decay, determined by the size of the non-zero imaginary part of the dark-Floquet-state-related quasienergy, depends not on how many localized lossy sites there are but on which one of the lossy sites is nearest to the driven site. Thus, for specially designed local dissipation, by controlling the driving parameters, it is possible for us to drive the system to a dark Floquet state with a much lower level of overall probability loss as compared to the undriven case and with good stability over enough longer evolution time. These results are applicable to the multisite lattice system with an odd number of sites and may be significant for long-time control of decay in a vast family of multistate physical systems with localized dissipation.