The Behavioral Revolution and International Relations

Hafner-Burton, Emilie M.; Haggard, Stephan; Lake, David A.; Victor, David G.

doi:10.1017/s0020818316000400

Cited by 189 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 176 publications

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“…Recent work in Behaviour International Relations has begun to provide a rich empirical backdrop for theories of international politics in which key actors, including the public, are guided by complex psychological processes (Hafner-Burton, Haggard, Lake, & Victor, 2017;Herrmann, 2017). The findings of the three experiments described in this paper fit with this literature, and add to it, by demonstrating that similar complexity is present in the psychological processes influencing the ways people think about government aid.…”

Section: Conclusion and Ramificationssupporting

confidence: 67%

Can Information Change Public Support for Aid?

Wood

2018

The Journal of Development Studies

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Donor country publics typically know little about how much aid their governments give. This paper reports on three experiments conducted in Australia designed to study whether providing accurate information on government giving changes people’s views about aid. Treating participants by showing them how little Australia gives or by showing declining generosity has little effect. However, contrasting Australian aid cuts with increases in the United Kingdom raises support for aid substantially. Motivated reasoning likely explains the broad absence of findings in the first two treatments. Concern with international norms and perceptions likely explains the efficacy of the third treatment.

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Section: Conclusion and Ramificationssupporting

confidence: 67%

Can Information Change Public Support for Aid?

Wood

2018

The Journal of Development Studies

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“…More broadly, our study joins a growing literature that considers the preferences and thought processes of political leadership (Hafner-Burton et al 2017;Hafner-Burton, Hughes, and Victor 2013;McDermott 2004). As scholars investigate determinants of leaders' foreign policy decisionmaking, we highlight one such factor-leaders' recognition of the importance of friendly political relations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Political Relations, Leader Stability, and Economic Coercion

McLean

Radtke

2018

International Studies Quarterly

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Countries use economic sanctions as a way to force their opponents to make policy concessions. Such external pressure may, as the designers of sanctions often intend, affect the degree of domestic support for the target's political leaders. It may even threaten the leaders' survival in office. We investigate how these dual pressures-preference for policy concessions and concern about target leaders' political future-shape the use of sanctions in the context of political relations between the sanctioning and sanctioned countries. The political relations between the two countries matter because a decline in the likelihood of the target leader's political survival results in a cost for the sanctioner when the target is a friendly regime and generates a benefit when the targeted regime is an adversary. Therefore, we argue, and show statistically, that economic coercion is more likely for friendly governments when they are politically stable and unfriendly governments when they are politically vulnerable. We illustrate our causal mechanism using declassified primary sources for two case studies of US sanctions against Chile.

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“…Leaders exhibit many different styles, dispositions, and cognitive biases; Trump certainly appears to operate as a "system one" thinker, making intuitive choices often driven by emotion (Haidt 2012;Kahneman and Tversky 1979;Tversky and Kahneman 1974). However, public opinion, the media, elections, Congress, and other domestic and international bureaucracies and institutions may in principle dampen and reign in a leader's imprint on actionable policy (Hafner-Burton et al 2017). This might truncate his influence and produce a more typical outcome.…”

Section: Does It Matter?mentioning

confidence: 99%