Differences In Public Attitudes Research Articles

Public attitudes towards government’s role in unemployment provision in three East Asian countries

ABSTRACT Public support for unemployment provision is essential to provide political legitimacy for welfare policy arrangements and yet it is understudied in East Asian welfare states. In contrast with the proposed unfavourable attitudes towards welfare among East Asian countries from the developmental/productivist perspectives, the study suggests socio-demographic and ideological differences in public attitudes towards the role of government in unemployment provision within and across Japan, (South) Korea, and Taiwan, which differ in welfare production regime and extent of labour market dualization. Data from the 2016 Role of Government V survey of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) was analysed. Findings revealed lower levels of public support for unemployment provision in large firm-oriented welfare production regimes like Japan and Korea, though in which labour market outsiders such as women, younger people, and unemployed workers were more supportive than their counterparts. Despite cross-national attitudinal differences, higher levels of support were consistently found in the lowest-income groups across three East Asian countries. The study provides new evidence of diverse patterns of welfare attitudes regarding unemployment provision in the East Asian welfare regimes. It also presents the need of (un)employment protection among labour market outsiders and low-income groups within these countries.

Health systems in the COVID‐19 crises: Comparative patterns of NHS satisfaction and preferences for public health action in Scotland and England

AbstractIt is often claimed Scotland is more social democratic in outlook compared to England, if this is the case then we might expect to find differences in public attitudes towards health and social justice, reflecting the growing health policy divergence between the two nations. Comparative attitudes towards healthcare in Scotland and England are worthy of close scrutiny here, given the different reform trajectories, with the running of the Scottish NHS based on professionalism and the English NHS structure built on market‐based principles. The Scottish Government also implemented stricter lockdown restrictions compared to the UK Government in England. However, the extent to which the policy responses to the pandemic reflect different attitudes towards collective public health action in the two countries remains under‐researched. In this article, public attitudes towards health in Scotland are compared with those in England. The comparative analysis relies primarily on survey data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) module on health and healthcare. This survey was fielded in Scotland and England in the autumn of 2021, during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Overall, Scotland is more solidaristic or ‘social democratic’ than England on key issues relating to public health action and social justice. The findings reveal some commonalities between the nations, confidence in the NHS during the pandemic, and a willingness to improve the health service via higher taxes for example, but also important differences in attitudes and preferences for state action exist that help set the scene for greater policy divergence in the UK.

Understanding public support for workplace diversity and antidiscrimination policies in Europe.

Societal processes and public opinion can affect whether employers take action and which policy measures they choose to boost diversity, equal opportunities and inclusion, and to reduce discrimination in the workplace. Yet, public opinion regarding workplace diversity initiatives (other than affirmative action) has so far received little scholarly attention, especially in Europe. Consequently, we have very little evidence about how the general public feels about workplace diversity policies - particularly those that are more common or more often discussed in Europe - and about which factors shape public support for these workplace diversity initiatives. Yet, a better understanding of the patterns and antecedents of citizens' attitudes toward workplace diversity policies is of clear scientific and practical importance. Against this background, this study sheds light on public attitudes toward three different, commonly applied types of workplace diversity policies, and examines which individual-level and - innovatively - national-level conditions shape public support. To do so, we bring together insights from various different and so far largely disconnected strands of research and a range of theoretical perspectives. We use large-scale, representative survey data from two pooled waves of the Eurobarometer, covering 38,009 citizens across 26 European countries. We enrich these data with information on national-level income inequality as well as countries' labor market and antidiscrimination legislation and policies, obtained from Eurostat and the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). Results show significant differences in public support across the three types of policies, with the strongest support for diversity training, followed closely by monitoring recruitment procedures, whereas support for monitoring workforce composition is clearly lower. This is in line with the idea that support tends to be lower for more preferential and prescriptive workplace policies. Furthermore, we find that, in addition to individual-level factors - particularly gender, ethnic minority group membership, personal experiences with discrimination, prejudice, intergroup contact and political orientation - national-level conditions are important antecedents of public support for workplace diversity policies. That is, differences in public attitudes regarding such policies are also shaped by country-level income inequalities, people's perceptions of how widespread discrimination and unequal opportunities are in society, and national-level laws and policies to fight unequal opportunities.

Changing attitudes toward homosexuality in South Korea, 1996–2018

Women are often considered more liberal than men on controversial social issues, but gender gaps in sociopolitical attitudes across different age groups have not been fully explored. This study challenges the taken-for-granted gender differences in public attitudes toward homosexuality by examining both between-gender gaps and within-gender changes across the life course. Using data from five waves of the World Values Survey in South Korea, we explore gender and age differences in Korean adults' attitudes toward homosexuality from 1996 to 2018. Consistent with previous research, people become more conservative as they get older, and in general, women are more accepting of homosexuality than men, accounting for sociodemographic covariates. However, this gender difference is conditioned by people's life stages. Only among young adults (aged 18–29) were female respondents more accepting of homosexuality than their male counterparts. For people aged 30 and older, there are no significant gender differences in attitudes, and for both women and men, homosexuality is mostly unacceptable during their mid (aged 50–59) and late adulthood (aged 60+). Further mediation investigation has shown gendered mechanisms behind age differences in homosexuality acceptability. For both women and men, traditional family/gender attitudes provide significant explanations about age differences in homosexuality, while for women, not for men, family status, especially the number of children, makes older women more conservative in homosexuality issues. We suggest that heteropatriarchal social structures may lead to a resistance to attitudinal changes in non-traditional family forms, such as homosexuality.

Public attitudes towards dialects: Evidence from 31 Chinese provinces.

Dialect Attitude is conceptualized as an individual's cognitive and affective evaluation of a dialect and its speakers. In the contemporary China, dialect is suffering from significant stigmatization, resulting in social inequalities, which hinder sustainable development. This study aims to reveal the Chinese public attitudes towards dialects, and clarify the potential determinants related to heterogeneous attitudes at a macro level. We combine the crawler technology and sentiment analysis to conduct a provincial cross-sectional study. We collect 1,650,480 microblogs about public attitudes towards dialects from Microblog across 31 specific Chinese provinces. Spatial regression models are utilized to clarify the influence of macro-level determinants on differences in public attitudes. The present study reveals that: (1) The Chinese public generally holds positive attitudes towards dialects, with significant variation between provinces. (2) Political Resource (β = 0.076, SD = 0.036, P<0.05), Economic Development (β = 0.047, SD = 0.022, P<0.05), and Cultural Resource (β = 0.054, SD = 0.021, P<0.05) promote public positive attitudes towards dialects. (3) Political Resource and Culture Resource influence more significant in the relatively advantaged regions, and Economic Development poses a higher influence in the relatively disadvantaged regions. Basing on the combination of crawler technology and sentiment analysis, the present study develops the most comprehensive database which takes 1,650,480 dialects-related microblogs from 31 Chinese provinces, and describes the following scenario: (1) Overall, the Chinese public shares a relatively positive attitude towards dialects with significant variations among different provinces, (2) Political Resource, Economic Development and Culture Resource pose positive effects on Chinese public attitudes towards dialects and (3) Political Resource and Culture Resource influence more significant in the relatively disadvantaged regions, and Economic Development poses a higher influence in the relatively advantaged regions.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE USE OF FORCE

The existence of gender differences in public attitudes has long been debated and it is maintained that women and men have different attitudes towards certain policy areas. One of those areas is the use of force in foreign policy. Women are less supportive of the use of force in foreign policy than men. The reasons for these differences have been tried to be explained through the impact of the factors such as partisanship or ideology; economic marginalization; political marginalization; negative responses to war casualties; feminist consciousness; motherhood; socialization; issue salience. While public opinion surveys have been regularly conducted on foreign policy in Turkey, the gender dimension is rather understudied. In this article, I first argue that there are gender differences in public perceptions towards the use of force in Turkey and I aim to explore the reasons for these differences based on two sets of focus group discussions data gathered in 2021 and 2022.

Social media regulation, third-person effect, and public views: A comparative study of the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Mexico

Given the prevalence of misinformation on social media and accompanying negative externalities, platform regulation has become a highly contested public issue globally. This study investigated (a) what global publics think about platform regulation and (b) the psychological mechanisms underlying such opinions through the lens of the third-person effect. Four national surveys, conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Mexico in April–September 2021, revealed that both presumed media influence on self and others play important but different roles in predicting support for two distinctive forms of platform regulation (i.e. government regulation of social media platforms versus content moderation by social media platforms). Self-efficacy (self-perceived ability to spot misinformation) and other-efficacy (perception of others’ ability to spot misinformation) were identified as two crucial antecedents of third-person perception. There were also nuanced but noteworthy differences in public attitudes toward platform regulations across the four countries studied.

Gender differences in public attitudes toward bipolar disorder in the workplace

ABSTRACT This study examines gender differences in attitudes toward individuals with Bipolar Disorder (BD) at work. Participants (N = 628) randomized to a vignette completed the Attitudes toward Individuals with Bipolar Disorder in the Workplace Scale (social acceptability, competency, reliability, advancement, job demotion/loss). Multivariable regressions found men rated co-workers with BD as more socially acceptable, while women rated co-workers as more competent and less likely to lose their job/be demoted. Mediational analyses assessing whether a personal diagnosis of a mood disorder mediates attitudes toward co-workers with BD and gender found 8–17% of a relationship between gender and attitudes is attributed to a participant diagnosis of depression or BD. These results inform educational/intervention strategies targeting gender-specific attitudes toward individuals with BD.

A comparative analysis of attitudes toward stem cell research and regenerative medicine between six countries - A pilot study.

IntroductionBreakthroughs in stem cell research (SCR) and regenerative medicine (RM) have attracted significant public attention worldwide. Simultaneously, scientific communities and science policies have tried to establish appropriate governance of SCR and RM. In this context, effective communication between scientific communities and the public is regarded as a key factor. However, the diversity of public attitudes and interests has not been sufficiently examined, especially the differences across countries.MethodsWe conducted an international comparison of public attitudes toward SCR and RM. We circulated an internet questionnaire among people in six countries: Japan, South Korea, the United States, the UK, Germany, and France. We collected 100 valid responses from each country, and a total of 600 responses were obtained.ResultsOur key findings are the diversity of interests in RM, which can be expressed as user pragmatism, governance and handling of RM, risk, and benefit, and scientific interests. The priority of interests varied across the six countries, and the variations may be influenced by the political, social, cultural, and media contexts of SCR and RM in each country.ConclusionThe implications can contribute to a deeper understanding of the diversity of public attitudes, and bring about an appropriate examination of a wide range of ethical and social concerns of SCR and RM in global contexts.

Challenges and Rewards of Engagement with Academia and the Wider Community

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) is one of Northern Ireland’s leading human rights organisations fighting for political and social change. In this interview, Mr Brian Gormally discusses the difference between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law, and how his organisation applies legal theory to the lived experience of Northern Irish communities in its work. In outlining some of the CAJ’s recent projects – such as its Model Implementation Bill for the Stormont House Agreement – Mr Gormally describes successful working relationships with academia, politicians, civil society and members of the community. It is also noted that the CAJ engages with the community in a specific and strategic way; rather than targeting the general public, the organisation produces information and research for those with their hands on the levers of power. Nevertheless, Mr Gormally identifies some striking differences in public attitudes towards human rights between England and Northern Ireland, and praises the community sector in the Republic of Ireland for crafting personal and anecdotal narratives to help win the same-sex marriage referendum. Finally, Mr Gormally describes the benefits and challenges of working closely with academia, concluding that such collaboration feels natural and has resulted in long and successful relationships with local academic institutions.

Межгрупповые различия в установках к людям с расстройствами аутистического спектра (РАС)

Исследование посвящено определению социальных установок по отношению к людям с РАС и оценке различий в установках людей в зависимости от их социально-демографических характеристик и степени вовлеченности в тематику РАС. Работа основана на данных специально организованного количественного онлайн-опроса выборки из 1297 респондентов, состоящих в сообществах смежной с РАС тематики (психология, доказательная медицина, родительство и воспитание детей). На основе кластерного анализа массива данных были выделены пять социальных установок по отношению к людям с РАС, получившие следующие названия: «интерес и сочувствие», «помощь без сочувствия», «нейтралитет», «сочувствующее отторжение», «агрессия и отторжение». Последующий регрессионный анализ показал, что положительные установки чаще встречаются среди женщин, а также статистически связаны с наличием детей, относительно высокой самооценкой материального положения, декларацией личной заинтересованности в тематике РАС и наличием родственников с РАС. Агрессивная установка у респондентов связана с отсутствием людей с РАС в ближайшем окружении, отсутствием опыта общения с ними при наличии только опыта наблюдения носителей РАС. Благодарность. Исследование финансировалось в рамках государственной поддержки ведущих университетов Российской Федерации "5-100".

Comparative Analysis of UK and Lithuanian Political Institutional Communicative Climate Change Discourses

The aim of this paper is to analyse the ways how climate change related risks are being constructed in political institutional discourses. We draw upon the political communicative texts, i.e. texts prepared by governmental authorities, from the pre- and post-Paris agreement period, i.e. 2015–2016. Our empirical analysis is guided by the relational theory of risk, theory of discursive institutionalism, critical discourse analysis, notions of interdiscursivity and interpretive repertoires. The main research questions are the following: What are the threats typically associated with climate change (source of risk)?; What are the objects-at-risk typically spoken of in political communicative discourses?; How are the relations of the risk source and object-at-risk discursively constructed (e.g. vulnerability, resilience, etc.)?; What is the overall ‘repertoire’ of typical climate change related risks as discursively constructed in political communicative texts? To answer the research questions, Lithuania and United Kingdom are taken for cross-national comparison. UK is regarded as a leader in international and domestic climate change policy, whereas climate change policies are treated instrumentally in Lithuania. Both Lithuania and UK, as EU member states, follow the general EU climate change policy. Yet because of differences in public attitudes and other socio-political contexts, the effectiveness of climate change policies is different. Contrasting the two member states and looking for underlying discursive practices, that serve as grounds for climate action, bring new scientific insights. The analysis of the sampled texts is conducted using NVivo.

Regional Differences in Public Attitudes toward Unification

Regional Differences in Public Attitudes toward Unification

All carnivores are not equal in the rural people's view. Should we develop conservation plans for functional guilds or individual species in the face of conflicts?

We tested differences in attitudes towards bears, wolves and lynx among the rural public in Albania and Macedonia through information collected from a questionnaire survey (n = 759). Wolves were the species with the least positive attitudes among the rural public and had the lowest support for conservation compared with bears and lynx. In addition, conflict perception of wolves was higher than for bears and lynx. We argue that, based on species specific differences in public attitudes, conservation initiatives and management plans for large carnivores should deal with wolves separately from bears and lynx, as lower public support for wolves might jeopardise the conservation of the two other large carnivores. Bears and lynx can be potentially treated together in conservation initiatives based on the similar levels of public support for conservation, however, from a conflict-management point of view, all three species need to be addressed separately.

Public responses to scientific research: Does disciplinary attribution matter?

Research has shown that the form and content of science communications can influence individuals' responses. This study examines whether individuals' perceptions of scientific research are influenced by the discipline to which the research is attributed. Two vignette experiments find that neither the perceived scientific-ness nor trustworthiness of a study originating from sociology is affected by attributing the study to a different social science or to a natural or medical science. These null findings contrast with surveys showing sizable disciplinary differences in public attitudes. It is possible that disciplinary attribution is a less salient cognitive shortcut when presented in longer communications as compared to survey questions that only provide the name of a discipline. We conclude with suggestions for further research on the role of disciplinary attribution on public perceptions of science.

Public Attitudes toward Official Bilingualism in Canada: Making Sense of Regional and Subregional Variation

ABSTRACTPierre Trudeau’s vision of Canada’s cultural policy was situated within a bilingual framework. Canada, so conceived, has “no official culture” and two official languages. Nearly 50 years later, debates regarding the effects and broader significance of this policy combination persist as illustrated by the recent debate about Supreme Court judges. Yet, Canadians’ attitudes about bilingualism have received relatively little scholarly attention. This paper probes the structure and recent evolution of public attitudes toward the general idea of official bilingualism using the Survey on Official Languages (2003) and the Canadian Election Studies (1997–2011). It goes on to investigate regional differences in public support for bilingual Supreme Court judges using a large-scale survey conducted by Vox Pop Labs in 2015 (n = 291, 577). The combination of these data sources offers new insights into the contextual and individual-level determinants of regional differences in public attitudes toward bilingualism policy in Canada.

Cultural Authority in Comparative Context: A Multilevel Analysis of Trust in Science and Religion

AbstractScience and religion are among the most influential forces for organizing social life around the world, yet we know little about how national context shapes perceptions of them. Using data from the 2008 International Social Survey Program, we begin to fill this gap by investigating cross‐national differences in public attitudes about science, religion, and society. We find that exposure to science is associated with more trust in science relative to religion whereas religiosity is associated with less trust in science relative to religion. Moreover, these relationships are amplified in secular societies and in those where science is prioritized. We argue that secular and scientific societies provide a context in which personal characteristics are more influential in the formation of social attitudes. These results highlight the importance of macro‐level factors for shaping trust in science and religion and for understanding the sources of their influence in society more broadly.

Not in My Back Yard: Public Perceptions and Terrorism

Why does the public care more about some terrorist attacks than others? In recent years, there has been a wave of terrorist attacks carried out by similar terrorist organizations, but these attacks have produced disparate public responses. Existing research shows that terrorist attacks are more traumatic for people who live near terrorist targets, but this research cannot explain differences in public attitudes about attacks occurring in other countries. We argue that threat perceptions are shaped by the physical and personal proximity of terrorist attacks. The identities of the victims are rarely known. People impute the characteristics of victims based on the country where the attack occurred. These perceived identities determine the empathy people feel toward victims and affect perceptions of terrorist threats. People feel a greater sense of vulnerability when attacks occur near their borders. We test these arguments using a series of online experiments. We find that the location of the attack and the race and nationality of the victims drive threat perceptions.

The Punitive Woman? Gender Differences in Public Attitudes Toward Parole Among an Australian Sample.

Research exploring gender differences in public attitudes toward parole is limited, despite a large body of literature showing that men and women have diverging views on other criminal justice issues, including capital punishment and offender rehabilitation and treatment. Drawing on an Australian national survey of community views on parole, the current study examines whether men and women differ in their support for the release of prisoners on parole. The results indicate that gender does predict parole attitudes, with Australian women significantly more likely to hold nonsupportive views on parole than Australian men. The results also reveal that women are more likely to take a neutral position toward parole, rather than supporting it. Together, these findings indicate there may be something about being a woman in Australia that prevents one from being willing to support the early release of prisoners. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

What motivates high-school students to pursue STEM careers? The influence of public attitudes towards science and technology in comparative perspective

This study examines the degree of association between students’ STEM occupational expectations and between-country differences in public attitudes toward science and technology (S&T). This study focuses on public attitudes among two different populations: students and adults. Three-level Hierarchical Generalised Linear Models are employed to analyse large-scale international data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results reveal that public attitudes toward S&T are positively associated with students’ expectations around pursuing STEM careers. Further analyses reveal that the positive association between public attitudes toward S&T and STEM career expectations remains consistent across gender, but that this association varies across performance levels. The positive association between public attitudes toward S&T and STEM career expectations is stronger for low achievers in science than for high achievers. These results advance the scholarly understanding of the ways in which social factors may be associated with students’ choices in pursuing STEM occupations.