Announcements

See the calendar on the right for the full schedule.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Why is Satire So Liberal? by Poulsen and colleagues

Congratulations to COPS member Shannon Poulsen for the publication of “Psychology, Political Ideology, and Humor Appreciation: Why Is Satire So Liberal?” She contributed to the piece during her undergraduate studies, co-authoring the paper with Dr. Dannagal Young, Dr. Ben Bagozzi, Abigail Goldring, and Erin Drouin. The study, published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture, explores whether the appreciation and comprehension of ironic and exaggerative humor corresponds with one’s political ideology. The authors find that conservatives have a lower appreciation of both types of humor. Psychological traits, such as need for cognition and need for closure, moderate the appreciation and comprehension of the various humor types. The paper can be accessed here: http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-51853-001.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

If you're attending the National Communication Association conference this week, be sure to attend the "Half COPS" session that will include presentations by three COPS members: Dr. Robert Bond, Matt Sweitzer, and Dr. Hillary Shulman:

Bias, Prejudice, and Public Opinion: New Insights through Novel Methods and Texts \
Sponsor: Political Communication Division
Fri, 11/17: 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
Sheraton Room: Houston B - Third Floor (Conference Center)
These competitively selected papers in Political Communication use novel methods, or apply traditional methods to novel texts, to provide news insights into bias, prejudice, and public opinion.

Social contagion in attitudes about prejudice

Members of the same household share similar social attitudes, but the source of the similarity in attitudes may be attributed to many processes, including through interpersonal communication. Identifying the effects of peer attitude change on an individual's attitudes as distinct from selection processes is difficult. This study uses data from a randomized controlled trial to identify contagion in attitude change about antitransgender prejudice. During a face-to-face canvassing experiment, registered voters who answered the door were exposed to either a message encouraging active perspective taking intended to reduce transphobia or a recycling message. Here, I show that the messages delivered to one household member are likely to reduce antitransgender prejudice in the other members of the household as well. This finding suggests that door-to-door canvassing messages intended to effect attitude change are likely to be socially transmitted. 

Author

Robert Bond, Ohio State University  - Contact Me 

Survey of Surveys: A Content Analysis of the Language Complexity of Public Opinion Polls

Past research (authors, 20XX) revealed a positive relationship between language difficulty in public opinion questions and self-reports of accessible experiences. Guided by feelings-as-information theory (FIT), it was discovered that as experiences were rendered more difficult due to complex language, survey respondents reported less political interest, lower political knowledge, and less sophisticated opinions than those who had an easy accessibility experience. Based on these findings, the purpose of this content analysis is to examine how language complexity appears in ten, high-quality polling firms surveys during the 2016 election cycle. For this analysis, each question (N = 8,091) was analyzed using the Flesch Reading Ease scale, the same measure used in prior research. Results indicate that language complexity varied systematically by polling firm, target sample location and size, survey date, and topic. By linking these findings to FIT, we contend that this variability should differentially, and systematically, affect participants experiences while taking the poll. Because these experiences have been found to affect survey outcomes in important ways, language complexity ought to be considered when drafting opinion questions. At a time when polling accuracy is being called into question, this line of research is highly relevant for researchers and pollsters alike. 

Author

Matthew D. Sweitzer, Ohio State University  - Contact Me 

Co-Author

Hillary C. Shulman, Ohio State University  - Contact Me 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Garrett at Colloquium on Friday

For those who aren't out of town attending the NCA conference, Kelly Garrett will be giving a talk on Friday during colloquium that will be of interest to COPS members.

Social media and the U.S. Presidential Election

In the wake of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, controversy about the role of social media in the political process has been intense.  These technologies have been blamed for promoting disinformation and incivility, contributing to political polarization, and creating echo chambers.  This talk will bring empirical evidence to bear on these sometimes hyperbolic claims. Using three-wave panel data collected from representative samples of Americans in 2012 and 2016, I examine evidence of both the harms and benefits of social media, paying particular attention to the role of Facebook.

Thursday, November 09, 2017

New Research from Chip, Osei, and Paul Beck

New work by Drs. William Eveland, Osei Appiah, and Paul Beck appearing in the journal Social Networks modified the often-used name generation technique and, through this modification, found that people’s social networks are more diverse than previously considered. Their article entitled “Americans are more exposed to difference than we think: Capturing hidden exposure to political and racial difference” is free to download here until the end of the year. Congrats on this Derby Hall collaboration!