Liberal Leaning Research Articles

Do professors favor liberal students? Examining political orientation appearance cues and professor bias

The perception of political bias in higher education persists even in the face of scarce evidence that liberal professors penalize conservative students or favor liberal ones. We investigated the degree to which college professors used student appearance to ascertain political orientation, and whether liberal-looking students were rated more favorably. Ninety-eight (98) professors rated a student on logic, likeability, and political leaning. The hypothetical student’s dress (bohemian vs. business casual) and hairstyle (brown hair vs. pink hair) were manipulated to cue political orientation. Results indicated that professors used student appearance to ascertain liberal political leaning but did not rate the students significantly different on logic and likeability. These results suggest that while professors use appearance cues, they do not favor students who appear liberal leaning or punish those who look less liberal.

CEO Activism and Firm Value

We investigate the increasingly common practice of chief executive officers (CEOs) taking public stances on social and political issues (CEO activism). We find that CEO activism stems from a CEO’s personal ideology and its alignment with investor, employee, and customer ideologies. We show that CEO activism results in positive market reactions. Furthermore, firms with CEO activism realize increased shareholdings from investors with a greater liberal leaning, who rebalance their portfolios toward these firms. Our results suggest that investors’ socio-political preferences are an important channel through which CEO activism affects equity demand and stock prices. Notably, CEOs are less likely to be fired when their activist stances generate positive market responses. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4971 .

Christianity and the Triumph of Humor: From Dante to David Javerbaum

Christianity and the Triumph of Humor: From Dante to David Javerbaum

Evaluation metrics for measuring bias in search engine results

Search engines decide what we see for a given search query. Since many people are exposed to information through search engines, it is fair to expect that search engines are neutral. However, search engine results do not necessarily cover all the viewpoints of a search query topic, and they can be biased towards a specific view since search engine results are returned based on relevance, which is calculated using many features and sophisticated algorithms where search neutrality is not necessarily the focal point. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the search engine results with respect to bias. In this work we propose novel web search bias evaluation measures which take into account the rank and relevance. We also propose a framework to evaluate web search bias using the proposed measures and test our framework on two popular search engines based on 57 controversial query topics such as abortion, medical marijuana, and gay marriage. We measure the stance bias (in support or against), as well as the ideological bias (conservative or liberal). We observe that the stance does not necessarily correlate with the ideological leaning, e.g. a positive stance on abortion indicates a liberal leaning but a positive stance on Cuba embargo indicates a conservative leaning. Our experiments show that neither of the search engines suffers from stance bias. However, both search engines suffer from ideological bias, both favouring one ideological leaning to the other, which is more significant from the perspective of polarisation in our society.

Exploration of the multiple impact of learning styles on learners' cognitive information processing

ABSTRACT It has been controversial whether the matching of learning styles with teaching environment has improved the teaching effects. This paper constructs matching modes by choosing Sternberg's three learning styles (liberal leaning, internal scope and global level) and adopts curriculum comprehensiveness and instructing modes. The research, based on data of off-line teaching collected from 456 college students in China, finds that (a) direct effect: three learning styles have significant effects on eight dimensions of learners’ cognitive information processing (CIP); (b) matching effect: the alignment of learners’ liberal leaning and instructing modes has a direct impact on the eight dimensions of learners’ CIP; the alignment of learners’ global level and curriculum characteristics has a direct impact on the 7 dimensions; the alignment of learners’ internal scope and instructing modes have no significant direct impact on the 7 dimensions; (c) moderating effect of the mandatory use of IT (MUIT): MUIT may restrain or strengthen effects of some matching modes on some dimensions of CIP. The key conclusion is that whether personalized instructing based on learners’ characteristics can improve teaching results requires the selection of appropriate matching modes. Not all matching modes have matching effects, and matching effect is influenced by MUIT.

Reexamining investor reaction to covert corporate political activity: A replication and extension of Werner (2017)

AbstractResearch SummaryExploiting a whistleblower's leak of the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) corporate sponsors, we quasi‐replicate and extend Werner's (2017) event study of investor reaction to covert corporate political activity (CPA). Werner found that investors reacted positively to the accidental disclosure of covert ties to the Republican Governors Association. In contrast, when we apply the same research design to the ALEC leak, we find that, on average, firms tied to ALEC experienced negative abnormal returns. In cross‐sectional models, we also find that the abnormal returns of ALEC sponsors were more negative for firms that faced shareholder contention around CPA and had liberal‐leaning employees, yet less negative for firms engaged in higher levels of institutional corporate social responsibility. The latter two cross‐sectional findings extend Werner's results.Managerial SummaryWe replicate and extend a study that examined how investors reacted to the disclosure of firms' covert contributions to a conservative‐leaning nonprofit organization. In contrast to that paper, we find that investors react negatively toward firms that contributed to ALEC, given its controversial positions on sociopolitical issues such as “stand your ground” gun laws. Investors reacted more negatively if the firm's employees were more liberal leaning or if the firm recently faced a shareholder resolution requesting that it voluntarily disclose all political contributions. However, investors' reactions were less negative if the firm engaged in high levels of corporate social responsibility. An implication for managers is that they should consider the risk associated with their firms' covert ties to political organizations perceived as controversial by the media.

Talking Politics: The Relationship Between Supportive and Opposing Discussion With Partisan Media Credibility and Use

In this article, we test a dynamic intracommunication process looking at the relationships between interpersonal discussion, perceived credibility of partisan media, and partisan media use. Using the theoretical foundation of hostile media perceptions, with a specific focus on relative hostile media, we examine whether interpersonal communication affects perceived credibility of liberal and conservative media outlets and whether these effects translate into increased use or avoidance of partisan media outlets. Using data collected during the 2016 U.S. election, we find that supportive interpersonal discussion is associated with greater perceived credibility of liberal media outlets (e.g., MSNBC) among liberals, which results in increased use of liberal leaning news outlets. In addition, we find that discussion with those who hold opposing views is associated with increased perceived credibility of conservative media outlets (e.g., Fox News) among conservatives, which translates into greater use of conservative leaning outlets. Similarly, talking to those who hold opposing views decreases perceived credibility of liberal media outlets (e.g., MSNBC) among conservatives, resulting in decreased use of liberal leaning outlets.

Beyond the Left-Right Spectrum: A Typological Analysis of Ideologues in China’s Weibo Space

ABSTRACTThis study aims to investigate Weibo users’ political ideologies in China. It argues that a left-right spectrum cannot adequately depict the ideological landscape, and proposes a typological framework to guide the analysis of competing ideologies. Based on a sample of 3440 Weibo users, this article uses latent class model to identify sub-types of ideologues. It discerns five ideological groups, namely Maoists, regime defenders, full-fledged liberals, economic liberals, and political liberals, as well as one politically silent group. The results show that liberal leaning Weibo users are not a homogeneous group, and should not be holistically conceived as regime challengers in opposition to regime defenders. To a certain degree, economic liberals are more similar to regime defenders than Maoists, and this can be better understood from a typological perspective than a spectrum perspective. This article concludes with a discussion on the political implications of the findings.

Exploring the Relationship Between Housing Downturns and Partisan Elections: Neighborhood-Level Evidence from Maricopa County, Arizona

An understudied outcome of foreclosure crises is how their aftershocks affect partisan elections. Two hypotheses are that partisan shifts may occur in neighborhoods with concentrated foreclosures because of (1) declines in turnout among liberal leaning voters or (2) swells of anti-incumbency among all voters. This research explores these hypotheses in Maricopa County, Arizona, by using econometric modeling to uncover associations among neighborhood foreclosures, voter turnout, and changes in the Republican vote share between the 2006 and the 2010 Arizona gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections. Our results show evidence of (1) anti-incumbent voting behavior and more liberal shifts among neighborhoods harder hit by foreclosures and (2) conservative shifts in neighborhoods experiencing African-American and Latinx population growth. These findings are suggestive of a link between neighborhood housing market distress and neighborhood partisan shifts, which in aggregate may shape state and national policymaking and future neighborhood conditions.

Liberal Boards and Diversity: Examining the Impact of Board Ideology on Female Board Appointments

Board diversity brings a variety of organizational benefits. As such, scholars have examined organizational, individual, and behavioral drivers of female board representation. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of board values on the decision to appointment a female to the board. In response, we focus on the political ideology of the board in terms of political conservatism vs. liberalism as an indicator of board values. We hypothesize that more liberal leaning boards will be more likely to appoint a female. Using data from S&P 1500 firms, we find support for our theorizing. Further, these results are robust to the inclusion of previously studied drivers of female representation. We aim to spur further research at the nexus of board diversity and political ideology.

The Hem of Adulthood’s Skirt

The Hem of Adulthood’s Skirt Jennifer Marsh As C.S. Lewis puts it, “To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicious of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood…” By my estimate, the snow is three inches or more. Despite my belief that criminals wait till the sun goes down to plan anything nefarious, and that any small copse of trees is large enough to host a hungry and man-eating cougar, 11:30pm finds me running through the park at the edge of my college apartment. I’m 26, it’s 19 degrees out, and I’m flinging snow at my roommates. Central Washington University is named for its reputed spot at the center of the state. There’s a bit of bickering about where the actual spot is: many measurements put it about eleven miles southwest of Wenatchee, but a marker on University Way claims that Ellensburg holds the center. This is one of many simmering debates in Washington State, and like most of the fights, I didn’t know it existed until I moved to Ellensburg. Actually, I didn’t really know Ellensburg existed until I moved to Ellensburg, an offense the residents carry like family photos in the sun visor of their truck. Determined to have a proper fight, I kick the ground to send flurries of snow up at my roommate’s face. It’s too powdery to form snowballs, but if I kick it at the right angle, a dusting of snow rockets towards Hannah’s face and clings to her hair. She fights back just as furiously, both of us dodging and kicking in a graceless tango. It should be dark, but the snow reflects the light up at the sky and leaves the park bright enough to see silhouettes and dodge attacks. Behind Hannah, Kayla is swinging her scarf in wide arcs at the ground to sweep the powdery snow up in gusts at Brianna’s face. It’s not really working, but I don’t think they mind, either of them. It is late, final exams are over, and we live in the lap of winter. Eastern Washington does not match its other half. For one, it is flat flat flat. Beyond Ellensburg, hills rise up to the south and north, hinting at the mountain range that runs down the state like a spine, but the town proper—indeed, the entire county—lies on a plain smooth as a flower pressed in the family Bible. Second, somewhere in early history a bargain with the four winds was made, and now each side of the state only gets two seasons. The West splits its time between spring and fall, while summer and winter whip by fast enough that they’re rumored to skip out entirely. It rarely snows, and when it does, whole cities close down. It is a region that prides itself on love for the earth, a liberal leaning, and evergreens that coat the hillsides in improbable height and flourish. The East is not like this. The East is rural farming communities. The East is gun cabinets in the furniture aisle. The East has blistering summers, wind gusts strong enough to knock you over, snows so deep you can forget they ever end. For many centuries, playing in the snow with my roommates would have earned me the scorn of most of society. Play was considered a waste of time, even for children. Consider Fanny Newell, who, as Howard Chudacoff tells it, “recalled that in her late-eighteenth-century childhood she was haunted [End Page 105] by fears for her soul and disdained playing with other children lest she fall ‘deeper into sin.’ Her parents encouraged her instead to prefer ‘joys on high.’” Of course, today the fact that children should play is near indisputable. Not only is it a social standard—think of the scorn for a parent who refused their child any sort of free play—but it’s also a pillar of the economy. Children’s toys generated 19 billion dollars in revenue last year. That’s the 2013 federal...

DEFEAT THAT WAS TREATED FOR VICTORY: REASONS BEHIND THE GOOD PERFORMANCE OF A. KUBILIUS’ GOVERNMENT PARTIES IN SEIMAS ELECTIONS

Scientific and non-scientific forecasts of 2012 Seimas elections were very unfavourable for the XV Lithuanian government head by Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius. Loss against all three opposition parties was predicted for the HU-LCD, dominant party of government. Both its junior partners, liberal parties LiCS and LRLM were expected not to exceed the legal threshold (5 percent of votes). However, despite the adverse circumstances governing coalition managed to perform very well in 2012 Seimas elections: according to the joint received vote share (25.71) it was the most successful government since the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. HU-LCD finished in second place according to parliamentary mandates, and LRLM even managed to improve its vote share if compared to the previous elections. This article aims to explain this defeat that for some politicians and observers appeared as victory: why the government of A. Kubilius performed so well (relatively, in the Lithuanian context) in Seimas elections?Two main theories are employed in the article. Party identification is theory centred about idea that voting behaviour is determined by stable psychological-emotional attachment to some party (party family) that is formed in the early socialization. In the Lithuanian context this theory is usually modified: majority of party identification traced to the excommunist-anticommunist cleavage (particularly prominent in early independence years, 1990–1992) and less rigid term “party attachment” is used. Existing research on subject reveals that HU-LCD has a stable core of voters, therefore it is expected for them to account for the most part of 2012 success. In the case of LRLM, since the party is very young (established in 2006), party attachment is supposed to work only if the rationalistic approach to party identification is also employed: that LRLM in the short life-span developed a reliable image and mobilized voters with liberal leaning attachment. According to these theoretical considerations, hypothesis is raised that electoral success of A. Kubilius’ government was mainly determined by party attachment factor.On other hand, party identification theory is not alone sufficient if loss of faithful voters and entrance of those without party attachment is considered. It is showed that despite overall unpopularity, A. Kubilius’ government enjoyed more positive evaluations than the XIV Lithuanian government of Gediminas Kirkilas. Moreover, economic situation in Lithuania improved the year before election. Therefore, economic voting theory is also employed: it asserts that voters make their decision on accounts of retrospective (prospective) evaluations of their own (egotropic voting) or country’s (sociotropic voting). It must be emphasized that this theory is completely compatible with the party identification theory, because it is able to explain shortterm losses and gains. Second hypothesis is raised that is treated as complementary to the first one: it asserts that the parties in A. Kubilius’ government attracted new voters according to the logic of retrospective economic voting.Individual level data from the 2012 post-electoral survey is employed for the quantitative analysis (crosstabs, correlations and binary logistic regression), presented in second and third section of article. Empirical data provides support for both hypotheses: though there is a certain effect of party attachment, alone it could not determine such a good performance of government parties. The article concludes that party identification was necessary, though not sufficient condition of good government performance in the 2012 Seimas elections: part of the faithful voters was lost, but these losses were compensated by new voters that positively (and retrospectively) evaluated the economy of Lithuania. Analysis reveals four main types of government voters: 1) Positive identifier (51.24 percent of government electorate); 2) Sceptic identifier (17.91); 3) Rational independent (16.42); 4) Others (14.43).

War of Position and Microblogging in China

Our study examines the nature and development of microblogging in China. By adopting a Gramscian thesis of ‘hegemony’, we argue that the Chinese regime is facing a crisis of hegemony and the emergence of the microblogosphere has provided a platform for the war of position to establish counter-hegemony. The main features of microblogging in China are the emergence of opinion leaders, the close involvement of traditional media, and a more passive role of the state in the microblogosphere. The predominant liberal leaning of the microblogosphere has illustrated the emergence of counter-hegemony, where government connection is an instant negativity. The regime can exercise censorship but has lost ideational leadership.

The Rise and Fall of Nine Lights Ideology

This article aims to shed light on the origins of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Nine Lights ideology and explain why this ideology failed to take root. Soon after the Turkish ultra-nationalists controlled the Republican Peasants' Nation Party (RPNP), the party leader Alparslan Türkeş embarked on a dual strategy which saw the party maintaining a racist and militaristic political discourse in informal circles while it officially embraced a moderate and liberal leaning ideology - the Nine Lights. Racist Nihal Atsız had been known as the party ideologue, but the ideas of liberal-leaning Mümtaz Turhan dominated the Nine Lights. The Nine Lights not only rejected nationalism based on blood, but also embraced the Charter of the United Nations and thereby issued a de facto recognition of the equality of all nations! In this article, I argue that the Nine Lights ideology failed because the Turkish ultra-nationalists treated it like a stillborn child and continued to embrace earlier forms of racist and militaristic political discourse. Even after the RPNP became the Nationalist Action Party and adopted the concept of the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis, it still indoctrinated its youth with the teachings of radical thinkers like Atsız, while the Nine Lights ideology existed only on paper.

From the Editors’ Desk: The Science and Politics of Screening

In November 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a statement recommending against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years: “The decision to start regular, biennial screening mammography before the age of 50 years should be an individual one and take patient context into account, including the patient’s values regarding specific benefits and harms.” This dispassionate declaration, consistent with the evidence at hand, provoked an outcry among patients, politicians, and even some physicians. Many saw the recommendation as a harbinger of health care rationing, whether enforced by the government or opportunistically embraced by the private sector. The force of the backlash caused the Obama administration to backpedal furiously. In an act of political tightrope walking, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius left the USPSTF to defend itself. “Mammograms have always been an important lifesaving tool in the fight against breast cancer, and they still are today,” she said. “Keep doing what you have been doing for years....” Whether this is sound medical advice is open to debate, but to watch administration officials sidestep the science and sway to the political winds is, to those who cherish both good science and good government, disheartening. More broadly, the mammography brouhaha bodes poorly for efforts to rationalize the health care system in ways that bend the cost curve downward without hurting quality. Doing so may ultimately require restricting payment for services—including popular but unproven or relatively ineffective preventive services like mammography for young women and prostate screening for older men. For some, outrage over the USPSTF guideline derived from the perceived threat to consumer choice in health care. The supremacy of choice over other values (such as effectiveness, cost, and safety) united liberal leaning women’s health advocates and conservative pundits. They decried the intrusion of government into the physician–patient relationship and argued that the decision of whether or not to order a mammogram should be left to the woman and her doctor. The issue for them is one of choice, not of rational medical decision-making. However, in his book, The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argues that while Americans now have more choices than ever before, there has not been a coincident increase in our well being. In fact, more choice seems to have led to more anxiety rather than less. The public health community is not blameless in the November imbroglio. For several decades public health advocates have chanted the mantra of early detection. There is no doubt that early detection of cancer and cardiovascular disease makes sense. But like much else in medicine, what makes sense is not always, uniformly true. With cancer especially, the biology of disease often trumps the chronology. Eventually, new biological insights will permit detection and treatment of disease at crucial points in its evolution. Until then, general internists will play a critical role in interpreting conflicting screening data and recommendations and helping patients to make good decisions. JGIM will support these efforts by continuing to publish original research and perspectives on the reliability, validity, and clinical value of screening—and on explaining the science to patients, and politicians.

Knowledge into action?: Understanding ideological barriers to addressing health inequalities at the local level

The objective of this study was to explore the presence of ideological barriers to addressing local health inequalities in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A survey of active citizens revealed low levels of awareness of the social determinants of health (SDOH) framework, and some incongruence between understanding and attitudes towards the SDOH. Support for addressing health inequalities was associated with awareness of the SDOH framework, liberal value-systems, and a cluster of socio-demographic characteristics. Liberal leaning participants were also more politically active than their conservative counterparts. Ideological barriers included lack of SDOH awareness, narrow understandings of the relative influences of the SDOH, resistance to de-prioritizing healthcare, and conservative values. Advancement of a SDOH policy agenda should incorporate wider dissemination efforts to citizens and local service providers to increase support for this framework, and utilization of existing support and political engagement from liberal-leaning demographics.