The Psychological Underpinnings of Political Behavior

Abstract

A. life, liberty, and property B. honor, liberty, and peace C. liberty, health, and community D. life, respect, and equal protection E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness Educational testing research documents that performance on such items hinges not only on the respondent ' s familiarity with the question ' s subject matter but on how difficult the " distractor " response options are (e.g., Kline, 1986). For anyone who majored in American Politics in college, reading options A -D in this context might induce a smile. The distractors are all structurally similar to the right answer (naming three " rights " ), and they are all plausible. But for people who have heard about the Declaration of Independence only very occasionally in school and have never read it, this might be a much tougher question.What if the question were asked this way instead:Which of the following are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence?A. to own a boat, to laugh occasionally, and to have a good meal daily B. to have a pet, to sleep in a bed every night, and to breathe air daily C. to live, to learn, and to love D. to vacation in a country away from home, to chop vegetables with a knife, and to get regular haircuts E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

FightandFlight: Evidence of Aggressive Capitulation in the Face of Fear Messages from Terrorists

“…Such behaviors are important and should certainly be assessed in future research. However, we note that political attitudes and specific protest intentions are good predictors of more general citizenship behaviors, such as voting and discussing the issue with others (see Krosnick, Visser, & Harder, ).…”

On the Structure and Dynamics of Human Thought: The Legacy of William J. McGuire for Social and Political Psychology

“…In any case, Converse's conclusion that most people lack ideological consistency, sophistication, and coherence remains enormously influential in political science to this day (e.g., Bishop, 2005; Fiorina, 2006; Kinder, 1998; Krosnick, Visser, & Harder, 2010; Zaller, 1992). Thus, in commenting on McGuire's theory, Sniderman and Tetlock (1986) opined that, “A syllogism is a natural metaphor for idea systems,” but it is not “an especially fitting metaphor for mass belief systems, at any rate as far as politics is concerned” (p. 79).…”

Political psychology

“…They found that participants who were knowledgeable about the issue in the news and trusted the news source were more likely to utilize the news story in their performance evaluations. However, these results were not found with participants who were less knowledgeable about the issue or viewed the news source as less trustworthy …”

“…This agenda setting is largely a consequence of the availability heuristic, as the media enhance ease of attitude retrieval through repeated, and often sensationalized, coverage of an issue, policy, or event. As a result, the ease of attitude and information retrieval caused by the media's news coverage and issue priming is often misinterpreted as an indication of issue importance and general importance compared with less covered issues . Thus, if the media place significant emphasis on a policy, the public may interpret this as an indication of a need for immediate attention and action, even if the issue or topic is relatively trivial.…”