POL SCI 164A Chapter Notes - Chapter 17: Motivated Reasoning
29 Apr 2018
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Department
Course
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PS164A Reading
Partisanship in a Social Setting
Klar
ABSTRACT
- Work on partisanship effects neglect the role of social settings
- Show that social settings have an independent influence over preference
formation, larger than partisan ambivalence
- Implication: cannot explore application of partisanship in evaluating political
information without accounting for the social settings in which an individual finds
themselves
ATTITUDINAL CONSEQUENCES
- Three outcomes
- partisan-motivated reasoning leads partisans to support the option
endorsed by their preferred party, regardless of how ideologically
compatible that option may actually be
- partisans perceive their own party’s solutions to be highly effective,
dismissing the opponent’s ideas as ineffective
- partisans are less likely to seek out incongruent information that
contradicts their priors
- Hypothesis 1
- Overall univalent (less ambivalent) partisans show stronger preference for
attitudinally congruent information (their own party’s policy) than do
ambivalent partisans (nonsocial setting - not take into account social
influences)
- Hypothesis 2a
- Homogenous groups engage in more partisan motivated reasoning (PMV)
and prefer policies closer to own party compared with those in nonsocial
settings;
- Hypothesis 2b
- Homo groups perceive party policy to be more effective and opposite
party policy less effective compared with those in nonsocial setting
- *** 2: homo settings polarize opinions regardless of partisan ambivalence
- Hypothesis 3a
- Hetero group less pMR and more favorable toward opposite party
policies compared to nonsocial setting
- Hypothesis 3b
- Hetero group perceive own party policy less effective and opposite party
to be more effective compared with those in nonsocial setting
Document Summary
Work on partisanship effects neglect the role of social settings. Show that social settings have an independent influence over preference formation, larger than partisan ambivalence. Implication: cannot explore application of partisanship in evaluating political information without accounting for the social settings in which an individual finds themselves. Partisan-motivated reasoning leads partisans to support the option endorsed by their preferred party, regardless of how ideologically compatible that option may actually be. Partisans perceive their own party"s solutions to be highly effective, dismissing the opponent"s ideas as ineffective. Partisans are less likely to seek out incongruent information that contradicts their priors. Overall univalent (less ambivalent) partisans show stronger preference for attitudinally congruent information (their own party"s policy) than do ambivalent partisans (nonsocial setting - not take into account social influences) Homogenous groups engage in more partisan motivated reasoning (pmv) and prefer policies closer to own party compared with those in nonsocial settings;
