Political Behavior

Political Behavior

@polbehavior.bsky.social

An interdisciplinary journal associated with the EPOVB section of @APSA.bsky.social. Edited by Chris Karpowitz & Jessica Preece, @BYU https://www.springer.com/journal/11109

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Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Osei, Schädler, & Kibirige find that well-connected MPs with stronger parliamentary networks and access to party funding are more likely to win re-election. Meanwhile, constituency service, shows little relationship with electoral success. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Role of Social and Symbolic Capital in Electoral Politics: How Social Networks and Parliamentary Debates Influence Re-election in Uganda - Political BehaviorMany African legislatures experience high rates of electoral turnover. But who gets re-elected and why? In this article, we employ a Bourdieuan framework to explore how different endowments of legisla...
Political Behavior
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Badrinathan, Kapur, & Vaishnav examine how group status shapes political attitudes, finding that Indian Americans express different policy preferences depending on whether they are considering the U.S. or India. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comHome and Away: Explaining the Paradoxical Political Attitudes of Indian Americans - Political BehaviorDo individuals hold fixed political attitudes that persist across different contexts, or do their views shift depending on their group’s relative status within each setting? We argue that political pr...
Political Behavior
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How do partisan social norms influence conversations about race? West finds that co-partisan discussions increase racially resentful rhetoric among white Republicans. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comPartisan Social Norms, Racial Attitudes and Civic Discourse - Political BehaviorHow do social norms surrounding racial attitudes differ among white Democrats and Republicans? Do these norms differ from the prevailing “norm of equality,” and how do they affect civic discourse? Usi...
Political Behavior
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Paksoy & Huddy explore strategies to reduce affective polarization, showing that perspective-getting improves attitudes toward political opponents across two polarized democracies. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comPerspective-Taking and Partisan Depolarization in the U.S. and Turkey - Political BehaviorThere is keen research interest in the reduction of affective polarization, which can worsen interpersonal interactions and challenge democratic norms. Past research has generated inconsistent finding...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Who trusts government? Chudy & Engelhardt find that perceptions of group status and marginalization help explain political trust across racial groups, beyond which party holds power. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comWho Trusts? The Relevance of Race for Political Trust - Political BehaviorIn the United States, political trust rests on myriad building blocks, including race. But existing work offers limited information about why race matters for trust and if its relevance varies across ...
Political Behavior
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Crabtree examines how racial identity shapes reactions to civilian-perpetrated violence, finding that Black Americans respond with greater anger and punitiveness when violence targets their racial in-group. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comRacial Identity and Evaluations of Civilian-Perpetrated Violence in the United States - Political BehaviorRecent racialized mass shootings have exposed a gap in understanding political responses to these incidents and how they are perceived by people of shared identity with the targeted group. I argue tha...
Political Behavior
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How much do campaign text messages matter? Haenschen, Mann, & DeMora find that SMS mobilization can increase voter turnout, with message content and timing shaping effectiveness. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Effects of SMS Mobilization, Message, and Timing on Voter Turnout - Political BehaviorSMS messages have become a popular tool of voter mobilization by political campaigns and advocacy groups in the United States, yet empirical evidence of their impact is inconclusive. We engage 7.1 mil...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Using data from 2006–2020, Cassella & Shepherd examine how partisan policy threats influence firearm purchases following presidential elections and mass shootings, highlighting the role of political context in shaping gun owner behavior. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comHow Partisan Policy Threat Mobilizes Gun Owners: Evidence from Firearms Background Checks - Political BehaviorHow does the threat of adverse policy change influence affected individuals? To answer this question, we explore the responses of gun owners following salient mass shootings and after the election of ...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

What are the long-term political consequences of economic reform? Using evidence from China's state-owned enterprise privatization, Xingchen Lan & Hongshen Zhu examine how large-scale layoffs shaped political trust and political behavior. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comShort-Term Pain, Long-Term Stain: Political Trust After Privatization of State-Owned Enterprises in China - Political BehaviorMass opposition to governments implementing economic liberalization reforms remains a key puzzle in the political economy of transitions. This article investigates this puzzle by examining the politic...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

How do Muslim citizens evaluate fundamentalist Muslim immigrants? Using a conjoint experiment in Kazakhstan, Masaaki Higashijima, Akira Igarashi, & Yujin Woo examine how religion and religious intensity shape attitudes toward immigrants. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comDo Muslim Citizens Welcome Fundamentalist Muslim Immigrants? Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment in Kazakhstan - Political BehaviorHow do Muslim citizens respond to immigrants who hold fundamentalist interpretations of Islam? Although the social science literature has examined public perceptions of Muslim fundamentalists, it has ...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Using a novel dataset of 450 U.S. sermons, Paul Lendway examines how local sermon rhetoric relates to political attitudes and behavior, highlighting the role of religious messaging in American politics. #ReligionAndPolitics #VotingBehavior Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Political Ramifications of Sermon Rhetoric Among White U.S. Protestants and White Catholics - Political BehaviorWhite evangelical Protestants support Republican Party presidential candidates at rates much higher than White Catholics and White mainline Protestants. I argue that local evangelical Protestant sermo...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

What explains opposition to teaching about racism in higher education? Using survey experiments, Thal examines the factors shaping White Republicans' views, finding that concerns about the value of college explain only part of the opposition. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Causes of Opposition to Teaching About Racism - Political BehaviorThere is an ongoing effort to prevent professors from teaching about racism. Such restrictions are sometimes justified by pointing to concerns that are seemingly not about race, including the need to ...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

📈 Excited to share that Political Behavior’s Impact Factor climbed to 3.5 in 2025 (up from 3.3), keeping us a Q1 journal in Political Science. Thank you to our incredible community of authors and reviewers! 🎉 #PoliSci #AcademicTwitter

Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Across multiple datasets, researchers find that cross-cutting social ties predict warmer out-party feelings, and Latino Americans, who hold more of these ties, consistently exhibit lower affective polarization. #AmericanPolitics Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comHow Cross-Cutting Ties Reduce Affective Polarization: Evidence from Latino Americans - Political BehaviorAffective polarization—that is, personal dislike and distrust between Democrats and Republicans—is argued to arise, at least in part, from fewer cross-cutting ties that bridge Democrats and Republican...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

New research on Hong Kong’s 2019 Anti-ELAB movement shows that constituencies exposed to tear gas saw more businesses publicly align with the protest movement. When repression meets pro-movement consumers, activism can become profitable. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Economic Consequences of Protest Repression: The Case of Business Activism in Hong Kong - Political BehaviorStudies of contentious politics have extensively examined the impacts of protest repression on mobilization, but the implications of repression on economic phenomena have received little attention. Th...
Political Behavior
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Across 38 European countries, network analyses show that programmatic party–citizen linkages are linked to more coherent mass belief systems, especially where symbolic ideological identities anchor the attitude network. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comWhat Explains Country-Level Differences in Political Belief System Coherence? - Political BehaviorAlthough public opinion research has made tremendous progress in identifying the conditions under which citizens adopt coherent political beliefs, comparatively little attention has been paid to the r...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Does political distrust undermine representative democracy? New evidence from four European countries shows it mainly increases support for direct democracy, especially among politically efficacious and populist voters. #ComparativePolitics Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comPushing and Pulling: The Static and Dynamic Effects of Political Distrust on Support for Representative Democracy and its Rivals - Political BehaviorDistrust is widely argued to stimulate support for political and institutional change. Yet, there is little agreement among scholars whether distrust pulls people towards rivaling decision-making mode...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Do legislators make more reasoned decisions than the public? New evidence shows that while lawmakers do not have stronger policy knowledge, legislative institutions help ensure their votes reflect accurate beliefs about policy consequences. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Democratic Dilemma among Elites: Do Legislators Make More Reasoned Decisions than the Public? - Political BehaviorAre legislators knowledgeable enough to make good public policy decisions? We examine three aspects of legislators’ decision-making: how much they know about the consequences of policy proposals, spec...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Why does support for abortion rights change over the life course? New evidence shows that becoming a parent is associated with declining support for abortion, particularly among conservatives and practicing Christians. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Insurance Value of Abortion and Support for Reproductive Rights - Political BehaviorExisting scholarship holds that Americans’ views on abortion policy are determined by their moral and religious beliefs. In this article, we argue that these beliefs are only part of the story. We pro...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

When do voters follow labor or side with big business? Evidence from California’s gig worker ballot fight shows that when attitudes are weakly formed, interest group cues matter greatly and labor unions still guide Democratic voters. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comLabor vs. Big Business: Interest Groups, Cue-Taking, and Voting Behavior - Political BehaviorHow do individuals interpret interest group cues to make informed voting decisions that are aligned with their partisan identities and ideologies? In the 2020 election cycle, Californians voted on a b...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

When do Americans excuse or condemn political violence? New evidence shows that while who commits the violence matters, what they do matters far more, target and severity drive punishment more than partisan identity, an encouraging finding. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comWhen Push Comes to Shove: How Americans Excuse and Condemn Political Violence - Political BehaviorWhat factors do Americans find most important when evaluating acts of political violence? Normatively, details regarding the violent act (e.g., the target and violence severity) should determine the p...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

How powerful are nationalist symbols? Work by O’Brochta & Cunha Silva shows that subtle language cues matter in political context. In Serbia, politicians use Cyrillic to signal nationalism, and these cues make politicians seem more nationalist. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comLanguage Cues and Perceptions of Nationalism - Political BehaviorHow do people respond to symbols related to nationalism, and does having political context matter? We argue that nationalist symbols influence perceptions when in a political context. Leveraging that ...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Trials are often seen as a polarizing form of transitional justice, but new evidence suggests they can strengthen democracy. Padialla finds that across Latin America, prosecuting authoritarian crimes increases satisfaction with democracy. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comIs Satisfaction with Democracy Higher After Transitional Justice Trials? - Political BehaviorTrials are considered the most polarizing measure of transitional justice, as they have harsh consequences on the prosecuted and may criminalize a portion of the previous authoritarian elite that migh...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

COVID-19 politics fueled a rise in secularism. New evidence shows the public debate over vaccines and pandemic responses increased Americans’ embrace of secular worldviews, with the strongest shifts among Democrats tied to pro-science attitudes. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comFuel on the Fire: Has the Politics of COVID-19 Accelerated Secularization in America? - Political BehaviorPolitics increasingly shapes Americans’ social orientations, including their religious affiliations and levels of religiosity. Less is known about whether politics affects secularism—an affirmative em...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

What happens to political trust after a crisis? New evidence from China shows governance failures sharply erode trust, and government corrections don’t work for everyone. “Insiders” with past exposure remain skeptical, while others recover. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comCrisis and Correction: Do Government Rectification Efforts Restore Citizen Trust After Governance Failure? - Political BehaviorIn a substantial literature on political trust in normal times, we know little about the impact on trust of crises or subsequent government efforts at correction. We investigate these impacts by analy...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

What moves Latino independents? New evidence shows economic policy appeals drive the most positive reactions. Economic messages resonate across party lines, while immigration cues polarize more than they persuade. #PoliSciResearch Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comIt’s the Economy: The Effect of Economic Policy Appeals on Latino Independents - Political BehaviorStudies of minority voters have long considered the role of both ethnic identities and economic interests. However, research on Latino voters emphasizes ethnic identity and the related issue of immigr...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Why do so many young Americans sit out elections? New evidence shows eligibility uncertainty creates sharp drops in youth turnout. Small rule changes (or clear info) can close the gap. #YouthVoters #ElectionResearch Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comAm I Eligible to Register? Registration Rules, Eligibility Uncertainty, and Youth Voter Turnout - Political BehaviorIs a lack of information about eligibility rules partly responsible for the particularly low youth voter turnout in U.S. elections? In a context where new voters usually have to register several weeks...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

How do we know when loyal partisans stop excusing democratic violations? New research on “winners’ restraint” shows that even political winners have limits, and accumulating procedural abuses can trigger real withdrawal of legitimacy. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comFrom Losers’ Consent to Winners’ Restraint: Citizens Reactions to Accumulating Democratic Violations - Political BehaviorWhile ‘losers’ consent’ has long been recognized as crucial for democratic stability, recent concerns over elite manipulation of democratic processes highlight the need to shift focus to the responsib...
Political Behavior
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How do we tell motivated reasoning from Bayesian updating? Little shows that standard designs can’t distinguish them—unless people sometimes reject unwelcome information, which changes the picture. #BehavioralScience #PoliSciResearch Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comHow to Distinguish Motivated Reasoning from Bayesian Updating - Political BehaviorCan we use the way that people respond to information as evidence that partisan bias or directional motives influence political beliefs? It depends. Using one natural formalization of motivated reason...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

How does online tone shape polarization? Goel & Merkley find that people punish incivility from their own side—but not from opponents. Still, uncivil talk can spill over, fueling broader out-party hostility. Gender doesn’t change these effects. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Nature of Online Talk: Incivility of Opposing Views and Affective Polarization - Political BehaviorAffective polarization is on the rise. Increasing polarization is often attributed to the nature of political discussion on social media platforms, but little is known about the affective consequences...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Education shapes how accurately citizens connect their interests to candidates. Goubin et al. find that more educated voters process political information more effectively and are more likely to cast a “correct” vote. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Role of Education in Political Information Processing and Correct Voting: Inequality at the Voting Booth? - Political BehaviorIt has been well established that the effectiveness and quality of political representation is unequally distributed in Western democracies. Scholars have frequently warned about the rise of ‘diploma ...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Americans’ immigration attitudes reflect both country of origin and religion. Christley & Zhirkov find that immigrants from Muslim-majority countries face lower support for admission—across parties, though less so among Democrats. #Immigration Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comAmericans’ Opposition to Muslim Immigration: Untangling Religion from Country of Origin - Political BehaviorDoes an immigrant’s country of origin shape Americans’ immigration preferences? If so, are some attributes of origin countries likely to provoke particularly strong opposition over others? We answer t...
Political Behavior
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Immigration doesn’t always spark backlash. Attewell, Jozwiak & Kuhn find that when migrants share ethnicity with natives, exposure can boost empathy and support pro-immigrant parties. In Germany, co-ethnic inflows aided the CDU. #Immigration Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comBacklash or Inclusion? The Political Effects of Co-Ethnic Immigration - Political BehaviorImmigration often causes backlash, to the benefit of anti-immigrant parties. Most studies that identify the effect of immigration on native attitudes and behaviors leverage variation in inflows of new...
Political Behavior
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Political distrust pushes citizens away from representative democracy, but not uniformly toward its rivals. Van der Meer & Janssen find that distrust (especially among populists) fuels support for direct democracy. #Democracy Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comPushing and Pulling: The Static and Dynamic Effects of Political Distrust on Support for Representative Democracy and its Rivals - Political BehaviorDistrust is widely argued to stimulate support for political and institutional change. Yet, there is little agreement among scholars whether distrust pulls people towards rivaling decision-making mode...
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Couples therapy for a divided America? A Braver Angels–inspired workshop reduced partisan polarization among students through empathy and reflection, though some effects faded with time. Emotional + informational dialogue works. #Depolarization Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comCouples Therapy for a Divided America: Assessing the Effects of Reciprocal Group Reflection on Partisan Polarization - Political BehaviorOvercoming America’s deep partisan polarization poses a unique challenge: Americans must be able to sharply disagree on who should govern while agreeing on more fundamental democratic principles. We s...
Political Behavior
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Can seeing the “other side” differently heal division? Myers & Hvidsten find that meeting counter-stereotypical partisans reduces bias and improves feelings toward the out-party. #PoliticalBehavior #AffectivePolarization Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comDo Fans Make Poor Referees? Exploring Citizens’ Reactions to Partisan Gamesmanship - Political BehaviorPolitical (as opposed to professional) election oversight is one area in which the U.S. scores extremely low in measures of election integrity. Meanwhile, rancorous political battles to determine acceptable election procedures and judge when tactics cross the line have become common events. Our work contributes to recent scholarship investigating whether voters prioritize democratic principles or strategically favor electoral procedures that provide partisan advantage. In two survey experiments, we confirm that Americans’ attitudes about antidemocratic election tactics reveal more about which team they are cheering for than they do about whether the tactics are fraudulent. The tendency to engage in partisan motivated reasoning occurs among all partisans, but there are subtle differences as to when citizens will engage in it. Partisan motivated reasoning is more common when actions cause harm and by the partisans that are harmed. Finally, Independents are more impartial, but less likely to call out improper tactics in the aggregate because they often fail to condemn actions by either party.
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Do fans make poor referees? ⚖️ Claassen, Ensley & Ryan find that when judging election tactics, partisans care more about who benefits than what’s fair. Independents? More neutral—but quieter critics. #PoliticalBehavior #ElectionIntegrity Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comDo Fans Make Poor Referees? Exploring Citizens’ Reactions to Partisan Gamesmanship - Political BehaviorPolitical (as opposed to professional) election oversight is one area in which the U.S. scores extremely low in measures of election integrity. Meanwhile, rancorous political battles to determine acceptable election procedures and judge when tactics cross the line have become common events. Our work contributes to recent scholarship investigating whether voters prioritize democratic principles or strategically favor electoral procedures that provide partisan advantage. In two survey experiments, we confirm that Americans’ attitudes about antidemocratic election tactics reveal more about which team they are cheering for than they do about whether the tactics are fraudulent. The tendency to engage in partisan motivated reasoning occurs among all partisans, but there are subtle differences as to when citizens will engage in it. Partisan motivated reasoning is more common when actions cause harm and by the partisans that are harmed. Finally, Independents are more impartial, but less likely to call out improper tactics in the aggregate because they often fail to condemn actions by either party.
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

When do strong attitudes turn dangerous? Clifford & Lothamer show that intense policy opposition, not partisanship, channels aggressive personalities toward supporting political violence. #AmericanPolitics Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comHow Strong Policy Attitudes Activate Support for Aggressive Political Action - Political BehaviorThere is a long history of political violence in the United States. Scholars have documented numerous dispositions that predict support for violence as a political tactic, finding that a general tendency toward aggression is consistently among the strongest predictors. Yet, we know much less about how political attitudes might activate aggressive personalities and direct them toward specific targets. In this paper, we examine how policy attitudes interact with dispositional aggression to motivate support for political violence. Across two studies, using novel measures and within-subjects designs, we show that intense policy opposition strongly predicts support for aggressive political tactics against politicians responsible for the legislation – primarily among those who are dispositionally prone to aggression. Surprisingly, the strength of partisan identity plays little role in explaining support for political aggression. Our findings suggest that policy attitudes are a crucial factor for understanding when aggressive individuals might turn to political violence.
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Do ethnic minority interest parties grow through programs, or people? Schaaf, Otjes & Spierings show that DENK’s support in the Netherlands stems mainly from personal & religious networks, while online ties matter less. #ComparativePolitics Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Role of Networks in Mobilization for Ethnic Minority Interest Parties - Political BehaviorRecently, parties that are run by and for ethnic minority citizens with a migration background have become more prominent. They can be considered a manifestation of ethnic political segregation. A key example of such a party is DENK in the Netherlands. So far, the explanatory literature has focused on how programmatic considerations drives voting for these parties. Other factors, such as the role of social networks in mobilization, have received limited testing and limited exploration in more detail. Furthermore, the literature on social networks is mainly based on majority populations. To inform our understanding of the role of social networks in voting (in general but also particularly among ethnic minority communities and for ethnic minority interest parties) this paper analyzes the voting behavior for DENK focusing on the role of personal, online and religious networks. The paper uses both qualitative interviews (with bicultural youth in the third largest city of the Netherlands in 2022) and quantitative surveys (the 2021 Dutch Ethnic Minority Electoral Study). Our analysis points to the importance of religious and personal networks for voting for DENK, whereas online networks appear to be less relevant.
Political Behavior
@polbehavior.bsky.social

Is nostalgia for authoritarian rule just history, or political behavior? Kim-Leffingwell shows that in South Korea & Taiwan, authoritarian nostalgia fosters group sentiment & attachment to successors, shaping voter behavior. #ComparativePolitics Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comAuthoritarian Nostalgia, Group Sentiment, and Voter Behavior: Evidence from East Asia - Political BehaviorLegacies of an authoritarian past have enduring effects on voters’ attitudes and behaviors. I argue that authoritarian nostalgia is an important source of group sentiment and voter behavior in post-authoritarian democracies. Voters with nostalgic sentiment construct strong group sentiment based on historical perception and express attachment towards authoritarian successors. I test this argument with a new measure of authoritarian nostalgia. With original data collected from South Korea and Taiwan, I provide evidence that nostalgic voters are likely to exhibit strong group sentiment observable through partisan attachment. Abstracting from the specific cases, I use a randomly assigned candidate comparison analysis to demonstrate that voters high in authoritarian nostalgia are more attracted to hypothetical candidates invoking nostalgia than those with high programmatic or ideological proximity. Overall, the results show how authoritarian nostalgia remains important as a source of group sentiment in maturing democracies.
Political Behavior
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Is support for “states’ rights” really about federalism, or partisanship? Doherty, Touchton & Lyons show views on devolving policy to states hinge on elite cues & which party controls the legislature. #AmericanPolitics Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comPartisanship and Support for Devolving Concrete Policy Decisions to the States - Political BehaviorDo people think that some policies should be handled by the states, rather than the national government? In an era characterized by stark party polarization there is reason to suspect that attitudes regarding federalism are shaped by partisan considerations. Specifically, reported support for devolution may be driven by exposure to elite partisan cues and partisan reasoning tied to which political party devolution would empower. Using data from the 2022 Cooperative Election Study, we find that partisans tend to differ—often substantially—in their support for state-level decision-making regarding concrete policy proposals. However, these differences are largely driven by those who are most likely to be exposed to elite cues. We also find that, among both Democrats and Republicans, support for policy devolution is contingent on which party controls the state legislature in an individual’s state. The findings suggest that partisanship plays a central role in shaping what the public says when asked about which level of government should determine whether to implement specific policy proposals.
Political Behavior
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How do independents talk politics? Eveland & Gee show that while partisans & true independents have similar discussion frequency & network size, their networks differ in partisan composition, shaping democratic diversity. #PoliticalBehavior Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comIndependent Political Networks: Comparing the Discussion Network Size and Composition of Partisans, Leaners, and Independents - Political BehaviorMost prior U.S. political discussion research has failed to pay close attention to the networks of political independents, and to the differences between true partisans, leaners, and true independents. This is in direct contrast to the (appropriately) growing research attention paid to the decades-long rise in the proportion of independents and the decline of true partisans. This study presents representative U.S. survey data that compares political discussion frequency, network size, and the partisan composition of the discussion networks of partisans, leaners, and independents. After applying controls for ideological strength and political interest, we find that the three groups do not differ in discussion frequency or network size. However, there are meaningful differences across the groups in three different network composition measures, including partisan bias. We interpret our findings in the context of both applied measurement considerations and normative democratic expectations of partisan diversity within discussion networks.
Political Behavior
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Can media stories about immigrant success shift public opinion? Unan shows German coverage of BioNTech’s Turkish-German founders boosted support for easing immigration, evidence that positive exposure can reshape perceptions. #Immigration Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comMedia Exposure to Highly Skilled Immigrants and Attitudes Toward Immigration - Political BehaviorCan exposure to successful immigrants in the mass media affect perceptions of immigrants and alter attitudes toward immigration? To address this question, I study the case of Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sah...
Political Behavior
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Do local politicians know their constituents’ views, or just happen to align with them? Lucas, Sheffer & Loewen show congruence and perceptual accuracy are intertwined pathways to substantive representation in Canada. #Representation Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comPathways to Substantive Representation: Policy Congruence and Policy Knowledge Among Canadian Local Politicians - Political BehaviorIn recent years, new data and methods have reinvigorated research on two central elements of elite political behavior: politicians’ congruence with and knowledge of citizens’ opinions. Here, we survey...