Political Attitudes Research Articles

Great expectations: The effect of unmet labor market expectations after higher education on ideology

AbstractHigher education has massively expanded around the world, yet we know little about the political consequences of this expansion. Students generally have overly optimistic expectations about the returns to educational investment, and the effects of unmet expectations on graduates’ political behavior have been overlooked. I study this phenomenon in Chile with observational and experimental methods, using unique panel survey data collected from new graduates covering 72% of higher education enrollment. The survey tracks students before and after they enter the labor market and includes an experiment that induces variation in their expectations. The panel data reveals that 65% of students have unmet expectations, and both methods indicate that this induces a shift toward progovernment/proequality ideology. Overall, this study shows that the gap between aspirations and reality upon graduation can be an important driver of political attitudes.

Correction to: Innovating the Collection of Open-Ended Answers: The Linguistic and Content Characteristics of Written and Oral Answers to Political Attitude Questions

Correction to: Innovating the Collection of Open-Ended Answers: The Linguistic and Content Characteristics of Written and Oral Answers to Political Attitude Questions

Feeling disadvantaged? Type of employment contract and political attitudes

Abstract We tested the theory of relative deprivation in the context of the Polish labour market during the post-crisis period from 2009 to 2015. This period witnessed the highest incidence of temporary contracts in the European Union, providing novel evidence on the causal relationship between the type of employment contract and political attitudes. Our findings suggest that temporary workers are more supportive of income redistribution but less supportive of democracy. Additionally, a shift from permanent to temporary contracts among prime-aged employees leads to a decrease in their support for democracy. Although this effect is modest in magnitude, the article points to an important mechanism influencing shifts in political attitudes. Our findings suggest that the effect of temporary employment on political attitudes is more pronounced among socio-demographic groups less accustomed to unstable employment.

Anti-Asian Racism and the Rise of Hawkish Mass Opinion in China

Abstract The dramatic increase in anti-Asian racial violence in the United States during the pandemic has sparked debates on issues of domestic racial justice and deep-seated racism against Asian Americans. Political scientists, however, have paid relatively little attention to how growing anti-Asian racism might affect contemporary U.S.-China relations, especially by shaping foreign policy discourses and public opinion in China. In this article, I investigate the way the Chinese state media discuss the issue and how such top-down discourses shape mass political attitudes and foreign policy preferences in China. Analyzing the Chinese state media coverage of anti-Asian racial violence, I first find that Chinese official narratives frame the issue as a manifestation of both racially motivated American foreign policy and problems with American democracy. By conducting a nationwide survey experiment in China, I then examine the impact of such top-down political rhetoric on public support for hawkish foreign policies. I find that these political narratives significantly boost racialized and nationalist sentiments among the Chinese masses, which, in turn, garner greater public support for hawkish foreign policy. This article contributes to understanding the foreign policy implications of anti-Asian racism after the global pandemic and the potential racialization of Sino-American great-power competition.

Antecedents of Corruption Perception in Guyana

Regardless of its utility as a measure of actual corruption, perceived corruption is related to many political attitudes and other variables which makes it an important phenomenon to understand. This paper explores demographic variables, ideological orientations, socioeconomic status, interpersonal trust, political attitudes and feelings of resentment as explanations for corruption perception with response styles controlled within a structural equation modelling framework using survey data collected in Guyana where corruption is salient and thought to be pervasive. It finds that the categories of variables jointly explain 31.5% of the variance in corruption perception and that there is explanatory utility for each category of variables evaluated except socioeconomic status with demographics and ideological orientations accounting for the largest changes in explained variance. It also finds that political cynicism attenuates an initial effect of interpersonal trust and concludes that ethnicity appears to function as partisan orientation in its relationship with corruption perception.

Everybody votes for Heimat: a study to examine the affective influence of feelings of Heimat on the persuasive impact of political advertising

Contemporary events are marked by profound social changes and the resulting insecurity among many people. Political appeals on an emotional level and beyond facts are therefore currently popular. The German construct of Heimat conveys feelings of safety and shelter like no other. It is therefore not surprising that the term is instrumentalized in political advertising across the entire party spectrum in Germany. In an empirical study, the influence of Heimat references in visual political advertising on the attitudes of recipients is examined, whereby the feelings of Heimat evoked are modeled as a mediator of this relationship. It is assumed that the strength of this affective influence depends on the moderators information processing (heuristic or substantive) and the personality expression on the factor neuroticism. Party identification complements the model, also moderated by information processing, as an additional factor influencing political attitudes. The results show, however, that the explanatory power for the feeling of Heimat is rather to be found in the identification with the communicating party. Against this background, the persuasive instrumentalization of a feeling of Heimat for the evaluation of political issues can certainly be worthwhile. In this context, it is not decisive whether the content of the advertising material explicitly references the Heimat issue, but how the party itself is perceived by the recipients. No effects were found for personality and information processing.

Impact of multi-dimensional religiosity on party support in Poland

This article delves into the profound implications of multi-dimensional religiosity on political party support, with a special focus on the case of Poland (N = 1203). In a society undergoing a transformative journey towards secularism and progressiveness, the traditional role of religiosity in shaping political attitudes has been reevaluated. In order to check the impact of religiosity, binomial logistic regression models were conducted. In the study, combined Wave 7 World Value Survey and European Value Study database was used. With the obtained results, a significant role of normative religiosity was detected. The results do not confirm conclusions discussed by other leading authors in Poland, who use other models and indicators of religiosity. The proposed study provokes and encourages for change in the methodological approach in building party-support models in Poland by including and measuring the normative dimension of religiosity as the leading source of individual party support motivation, discarding thus more traditional ritualistic behaviour measuring.

Digital transformation on the design and implementation of virtual political campaigns in Kuwait: perceptions and attitudes of politicians and campaign managers for bold innovation and social impact in Kuwait

Purpose This study aims to examine the perceptions of political figures and campaign strategists in Kuwait regarding the adoption of virtual political campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using an enhanced version of the technology acceptance model (TAM), it seeks to understand and quantify their attitudes toward these digital campaign methods. This study can be considered as a bold contribution to the discussion on digital transformation of virtual channels for the promotion of bold innovation and social impact in Kuwait. Design/methodology/approach Data was gathered from 82 participants, comprising 47 politicians and 35 campaign managers in Kuwait. A comprehensive method involving both questionnaires and face-to-face interactions was implemented to ensure a thorough collection of relevant data, aiming to support the research’s objectives effectively. Findings The results underscore the significant influence of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and the newly integrated factor of perceived convenience on the attitudes toward virtual political campaigns. These factors collectively shape the willingness and approach of political entities in embracing digital campaigning avenues. The findings also indicate that digital transformation in the design and implementation of virtual campaigns can be grounded on positive attitudes and perceptions. Originality/value The research fills a critical gap in existing literature by examining large-scale attitudes toward virtual political campaigns in Kuwait’s unique context. It offers novel understandings of how political figures and campaign managers perceive and adapt to technological advancements in campaign strategies, mainly during unprecedented crisis times like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study contributes to academic discourse and has practical implications for the evolution of political campaigning strategies in a digital age. A direct implication of our study is also the need to promote further future research on the capacity of digitally transformed channels for political campaigns to be venues of bold innovation. It also highlights the need to provide citizens with training and awareness for this new era of prompt responses to their requirements toward sustainable development and innovation.

Revisiting the Realism/Modernism Debate: Marxist Thought and the Ethics of Representation

In Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature (2005), Nicholas Brown remarks on the difference between realism and modernism as one that expresses a conflict between “a responsibility to historical truth” and “a fidelity to the formal energies released by the emergence of a form of subjectivity liberated (or alienated) from historical consciousness” (182). This raises several issues that might be useful for us to develop since, despite the emergence of diverse critical lines of thought since the development of postwar critical theory, realism and modernism have continued to affect the intricately interconnected modes of philosophical and political attitudes towards the relation between aesthetics and politics. Marxist thinkers, Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Fredric Jameson, among others, explored the dichotomy of realism and modernism in terms of the dialectic of form and content. While they shared that there is an essentially inextricable relationship between literature and the underlying contradictions of our society, how they described the aesthetic expression of social contradictions was distinct, leaving the important question unanswered: “what does it mean to be ‘real’?” In this paper, I revisit the realism-modernism debate to explore this fundamental antagonism to see how these thinkers help clarify the following issues: what is realist form, and what are its features? How does realism negotiate the history of aesthetic forms? Are “formal energies,” as Brown puts it, by themselves an attempt to be free of “historical consciousness” or ones that, as form, highlight historical consciousness? And finally, how does realist form make political action possible? These questions also help us see what it means that the aesthetic choices of an older realism have been persistently replicated after modernism in the global periphery.

KAJIAN MAKNA PADA LAGU KURIK KUNDI KARYA SUHAIMI ZAIN

This research aims to describe the meaning of the song Kurik Kundi by Suhaimi Zein. The analysis focuses on the connotative meaning and social values in the song. This research uses a qualitative approach. The data discussed are words, phrases, and clauses sourced from the Kurik Kundi song. The method used to collect data is observation and the data analysis method is the inductive method. The results of the research show the connotation meaning found in the songs. There are words and phrases indicating the relationship between words and phrases with social life and Malay culture. The social values ​​contained in the song of Kurik Kundi indicate the polite attitude of Malays towards fellow Malays and other people. Good manners in expressing the daily attitudes of Malay people. The enthusiasm in carrying out activities, and cooperation carried out by Malay people to achieve common goals in society.

Predicting political attitudes from web tracking data: a machine learning approach

ABSTRACT Anecdotal evidence suggests that the surge of populism and subsequent political polarization might make voters’ political preferences more detectable from digital trace data. This potential scenario could expose voters to the risk of being targeted and easily influenced by political actors. This study investigates the linkage between over 19,000,000 website visits, tracked from 1,003 users in Germany, and their survey responses to explore whether website choices can accurately predict political attitudes across five dimensions: Immigration, democracy, issues (such as climate and the European Union), populism, and trust. Our findings indicate a limited ability to identify political attitudes from individuals’ website visits. Our most effective machine learning algorithm predicted interest in politics and attitudes toward democracy but with dependency on model parameters. Although website categories exhibited suggestive patterns, they only marginally distinguished between individuals with anti- or pro-immigration attitudes, as well as those with populist or mainstream attitudes. This further confirm the reliability of surveys in measuring attitudes compared to digital trace data and, from a normative perspective, suggests that the potential to extract sensitive political information from online behavioral data, which could be utilized for microtargeting, remains limited.

Exploring the Intersection of Legal Regulations and Feminization of Migration: A Focus on Migrant Women Working in Domestic Services in Türkiye

One of the trends that have come to the fore with globalization is the increased visibility of women in migration. As the rate of women’s participation in the labor force through paid work has increased, their mobility from rural to urban areas or from one part of the world to another has also increased. In this process, also known as the feminization of migration, women have become geographically more mobile than ever before in history. With this process, women started to migrate independently from their family members across national borders to work in a variety of jobs, particularly domestic work and sex work. The diversion of domestic work (caring for the sick, children and elderly, cleaning, etc.) to women in poorer countries through the global division of labor has played an important role in this change. This division of labor, which arises from the combination of the gendered character of domestic work and cheap female labor, has necessitated the geographical mobility of poorer women from all over the world. As a result, women have also begun to engage in geographical mobility on a global scale. In addition to these reasons that push women to migrate, developments in destination countries that create demand for migrant women’s labor are also important. Today, almost every part of the world has become a destination point for women migrating for domestic work. Especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Türkiye has also become one of these target countries. However, migrant women have faced various problems in Türkiye, both due to deficiencies in existing regulations and political attitudes towards migrants. These women, most of whom work as domestic workers, have been at the center of problems arising from both the migration system and the specific conditions of domestic work. In this study, the problems faced by female migrant domestic workers in Türkiye are discussed within the aforementioned framework. In particular, the main axis of the discussion is how domestic workers are affected by legal regulations in Türkiye. The study interrogates how women’s migration to Türkiye has developed within the existing migration system and examines the migration experience of migrant women working as domestic workers in Türkiye.

The genetic underpinnings of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation explain political attitudes beyond Big Five personality.

Political attitudes are predicted by the key ideological variables of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), as well as some of the Big Five personality traits. Past research indicates that personality and ideological traits are correlated for genetic reasons. A question that has yet to be tested concerns whether the genetic variation underlying the ideological traits of RWA and SDO has distinct contributions to political attitudes, or if genetic variation in political attitudes is subsumed under the genetic variation underlying standard Big Five personality traits. We use data from a sample of 1987 Norwegian twins to assess the genetic and environmental relationships between the Big Five personality traits, RWA, SDO, and their separate contributions to political policy attitudes. RWA and SDO exhibit very high genetic correlation (r = 0.78) with each other and some genetic overlap with the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. Importantly, they share a larger genetic substrate with political attitudes (e.g., deporting an ethnic minority) than do Big Five personality traits, a relationship that persists even when controlling for the genetic foundations underlying personality traits. Our results suggest that the genetic foundations of ideological traits and political attitudes are largely non-overlapping with the genetic foundations of Big Five personality traits.

Exploring citizen perceptions and values for a responsible society

AbstractAimsCitizens’ perceived values play a decisive role in shaping a responsive society, driving social and political attitudes and behaviors. Understanding these values, influenced by cultural, historical, and personal experiences, is essential for comprehending public perspectives on social, economic, and ecological aspects crucial for sustainable societies. This study investigates perceived values as indicators of citizens’ potential civic engagement, mainly contributing to societal development.Materials and methodsFor the purpose of this study, we analyzed 1012 cases from the European Value Survey/World Value Survey data set of the Republic of Macedonia. In addition to the exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis, we employed XGBoost regression, coupled with SHAP analysis, offering a transparent exploration of the significance of citizens’ perceived values, while emphasizing their role in motivating social responsibility and duty.ResultsWe identified 12 factors and categorized Macedonian citizens into 4 clusters. Through the SHAP feature importance method, we determined that perceptions of gender stereotypes, trust in people, civil rights, and job equality strongly influence the idea of social responsibility.ConclusionsOur findings offer pathways to promote individual accountability and increased participation in societal actions, fostering greater advocacy and policy changes for a responsible, engaged, and sustainable society.

Reactive Management of University Reputation During the COVID Crisis: Governance and the Control of Public Narratives in Chinese Higher Education

AbstractReputation management (RM) is initially applied within business research, whereas under the premise of commercialisation of higher education (HE), this concept has been widely studied in HE realm. China, as one of the emerging countries in global competitions, RM was initially borrowed from Anglo-Saxon HE, and it gradually developed in Chinese HE. However, most of the studies focussing on promotion strategies, which implies crisis management could be dismissed; thus, further studies are needed to develop the holistic picture of RM in Chinese universities. Particularly, how COVID-19 casts an impact on RM in Chinese HE and its link to governance is rarely discussed. This study adopts an active/reactive RM framework to explore the practices of Chinese universities from practitioner’s perspective. The findings suggest that RM in Chinese HE is underdeveloped and overly focussed on external audiences. In response to crises, Chinese universities rely on public narrative control, known as 'Yuqing' management. ‘Yuqing’ directly translates into public opinions, yet it has political impact and reflects the generalisation of prevalence societal opinions and political attitude of people. The rationale of this is deeply rooted within the how Chinese universities are governed, i.e. the financial and political harness.

Strategi Orang Tua dalam Membentuk Perilaku Sopan Santun pada Anak Usia 9-10 Tahun di Desa Lebo RT 12 RW 03 Sidoarjo

The purpose of this research is to show how parents’ strategies in shaping children aged 9-10 years in developing polite behavior. The research method used is a field research method with a descriptive qualitative research approach strategy. The data subjects in this study were two parents or two families who had children aged 9-10 years in Lebo Village RT 12 RW 03 Sidoarjo. The techniques used in this study are observation, interviews and documentation. The result of the data analysis show that the parents’ strategy in shaping polite behavior in children aged 9-10 years in Village RT 12 RW 03 Sidoarjo, parents have implemented the formation of polite behavior through giving advice, giving examples or exemplary reinforcement. A little less accomplished, because parents have not full provided direct guidance. The involvement of parents in the formation of children’s polite attitude with the teaching of religious education as well as moral education.

Multidimensional political polarization in online social networks

Political polarization in online social platforms is a rapidly growing phenomenon worldwide. Despite their relevance to modern-day politics, the structure and dynamics of polarized states in digital spaces are still poorly understood. We analyze the community structure of a two-layer, interconnected network of French Twitter users, where one layer contains members of Parliament and the other one regular users. We obtain an optimal representation of the network in a four-dimensional political opinion space by combining network embedding methods and political survey data. We find structurally cohesive groups sharing common political attitudes and relate them to the political party landscape in France. The distribution of opinions of professional politicians is narrower than that of regular users, indicating the presence of more extreme attitudes in the general population. We find that politically extreme communities interact less with other groups as compared to more centrist groups. We apply an empirically tested social influence model to the two-layer network to pinpoint interaction mechanisms that can describe the political polarization seen in data, particularly for centrist groups. Our results shed light on the social behaviors that drive digital platforms towards polarization and uncover an informative multidimensional space to assess political attitudes online. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Beyond partisan filters: Can underreported news reduce issue polarization?

While many news outlets aim for impartiality, 67% of Americans perceive their news sources as partisan, often presenting only one side of the story. This paper tests whether exposing individuals to news stories their political adversaries focus on can mitigate political polarization. In an experiment involving a real-world political newsletter-sent to participants who had opted to receive news that uncovers media biases-exposure to a specific story about refugee policy led respondents to reassess their positions. This reevaluation changed their stances on the issue and reduced the ideological distinctions they made between Democrats and Republicans. These findings underscore the need for future studies to untangle the specific circumstances where cross-partisan exposure can alter political attitudes.

Authoritarianism at School: Indoctrination Education, Political Socialisation, and Citizenship in North Korea

ABSTRACT It is well known that North Korea uses political propaganda to elicit popular support, and this article focuses on how primary and secondary schools play an essential role in conveying the regime’s messages. The article asks how this process shapes North Koreans’ perceptions towards citizenship and how their perceptions of ‘democracy’ differ from those in other parts of the world. School education, I argue, socialises North Koreans and shapes their everyday political attitudes and citizenship perceptions. This study examines 32 North Korean Socialist Moral textbooks and identifies four core regime messages embedded in these texts: Personality Cult education in relation to the Kims, promoting socialism, fostering nationalism, and cultivating communitarianism and collectivism. I propose that these regime messages positively and negatively affect perceptions of democratic citizenship. Messages that promote communitarianism can encourage North Koreans to engage in democratic politics, but messages about political leadership, nationalism, and collectivism can hamper North Koreans’ understanding of democracy and their capacity to develop democratic norms. This study has implications for research into how North Korean defectors are integrated into democratic South Korea, suggesting that these defectors’ longstanding exposure to authoritarian education in North Korea will necessarily influence how they conceive of democracy.

Country Bumpkin or City Slicker? The Role of Place of Living and Place-Based Identity in Explaining Place-Based Resentment

In recent years, the rural-urban divide has not only made its way back into political science, but has also been given an entirely new angle by investigating place of living as its own social identity. However, research is still in its early stages and studies so far focus on linear explanations of place-based resentment. This paper studies place in the light of social identity theory and investigates how place of living and place-based identity interact in shaping place-based resentment. Original survey data on around 4000 respondents from Switzerland from 2022 with a novel measure of place-based identity and resentment is used. A distinction is made not only between rural and urban residents, but also between the suburbanites. Results show that rural residents hold the highest levels of identity and resentment, while suburban residents hold higher levels of resentment than urban ones do. Findings show that there is a moderating effect, whereby the rural-urban divide in resentment increases with place-based identity, while the suburban-urban gap diminishes with increasing place-based identity. These differences in place-based identity and resentment could explain the rural-urban divide in political attitudes and behavior.