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 MeSurvey 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.
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