The Social Psychology of Politics

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS TO SOCIAL ISSUES Published under the auspices of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

Volume I

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

SOCIAL INFLUENCE PROCESSES AND PREVENTION Edited by John Edwards, R. Scott Tindale, Linda Heath, and Emil 1. Posavac

METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Edited by Fred B. Bryant, John Edwards, R. Scott Tindale, Emil J. Posavac, Linda Heath, Eaaron Henderson, and Yolanda Suarez-Ba1cazar

APPLICATIONS OF HEURISTICS AND BIASES TO SOCIAL ISSUES Edited by Linda Heath, R. Scott Tindale, John Edwards, Emil J. Posavac, Fred B. Bryant, Eaaron Henderson-King, Yolanda Suarez-Ba1cazar, and Judith Myers

THEORY AND RESEARCH ON SMALL GROUPS Edited by R. Scott Tindale, Linda Heath, John Edwards, Emil J. Posavac, Fred B. Bryant, Yolanda Suarez-Ba1cazar, Eaaron Henderson-King, and Judity Myers

THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF POLITICS Edited by Victor C. Ottati, R. Scott Tindale, John Edwards, Fred B. Bryant, Linda Heath, Daniel C. O'Connell, Yolanda Suarez-Ba1cazar, and Emil J. Posavac

A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.

The Social Psychology of Politics

Edited by

Victor C. Ottati, R. Scott Tindale, John Edwards, Fred B. Bryant, Linda Health, Daniel C. O' Connell, Yolanda Suarez-Balzacar, and Emil J. Posavac Loyola University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois

Springer-Science+Business Media, LLC

ISBN 978-1-4613-5136-8 ISBN 978-1-4615-0569-3 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-0569-3

©2002 Springer-Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer / Plenum Publishers, New York in 2002 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 2002

10987654321

A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Al! rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Pub1isher

Editorial Advisory Board

Daniel Bar-Tal, Tel Aviv University Andrew S. Baum, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sharon S. Brehm, University of Kansas Marilynn B. Brewer, The Ohio State University Robert Cialdini, Arizona State University James H. Davis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Christine Dunkel-Schetter, University of California, Los Angeles Ronald J. Fisher, University of Saskatchewan Susan K. Green, University of Oregon Christine Iijima Hall, Arizona State University Sara B. Keisler, Carnegie-Mellon University Barbara J. Loken, University of Minnesota Geoffrey Maruyama, University of Minnesota Joseph E. McGrath, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Stuart Oskamp, Claremont Graduate School Amado Padilla, Stanford University Michael S. Pallak, American Biodyne Research Corporation Daniel Perlman, University of British Columbia Linda Perloff, Behavioral Measurement Database Services Dennis P. Rosenbaum, University of Illinois at Chicago Michael J. Saks, University of Iowa Althea Smith, Boston University Claude M. Steele, Stanford University Geoffrey Stephenson, University of Kent at Canterbury Tom Tyler, University of California, Berkeley Carol M. Werner, University of Utah

Contributors

Abrams, Dominic University of Kent at Canterbury, Kent, England CT2 7NP

Capelos, Theresa State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4392

Cathey, Christie University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1020

Deiger, Megan Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626

Diven, Polly J. Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan 49401

Houston, David University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152-3230

Huddy, Leonie State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4392

Hulbert, Lorne University of Kent at Canterbury, Kent, England CT2 7NP

Isbell, Linda M. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003

Jason, Leonard A. DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois 60614

Kameda, Tatsuya Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan 060-0810

Kowal, Sabine Technical University of Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Mullen, Elizabeth University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607-7137

Pratto, Felicia University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1020

O'Connell, Daniel C. Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626

Ottati, Victor C. Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626

Randsley de Moura, Georgina University of Kent at Canterbury, Kent, England CT27NP

Richman, Judith A. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60612

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viii Contributors

Smith, Christine M. Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan 49401

Skitka, Linda University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607-7137

Taylor, Renee R. DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois 60614

Tindale, R. Scott Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626

Wyer, Robert S. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Preface

Individuals have sought to understand political behavior for centuries. Systematic and empirical investigations of political behavior, however, were not performed until the middle of the twentieth century. Early studies of this nature sought to delineate the sociological (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1949), attitudinal (Campbell, Converse, Miller, & Stokes, 1960), and rational (Downs, 1957) determinants of political behav­ior. Yet, none of these approaches provided a model of political behavior that would satisfy the contemporary psychologist. The sociological approach failed to adequately delineate the intrapsychic determinants of political behavior. The attitudinal approach, while emphasizing the role of intrapsychic "attitudes" in determining political behav­ior, failed to carefully specify the psychological determinants of these attitudes. The rational choice approach, although providing a detailed mathematical model of the optimal political decision making process, failed to provide a realistic account of how people process political information under naturalistic conditions that involve limited capacity and motivation.

More recent developments within the field of political psychology have begun to address many of the shortcomings associated with earlier work. Inspired by recent advances in the area of cognitive social psychology, researchers are rapidly develop­ing more realistic and detailed models of the psychological process that determines political judgments and behavior. Early attempts to merely predict political behavior have been replaced by an attempt to describe the actual process whereby individuals gather, interpret, exchange, and combine information to arrive a political judgment or decision. The present volume provides a relatively extensive and comprehensive cov­erage of this more recent era of research in political psychology. The chapters are organized around three domains of research. The first involves the psychological deter­minants of candidate evaluation and voting preference. The second involves the psy­chological determinants of voters' policy opinions (e.g., affirmative action, military spending). The third focuses on collective political action from a group perspective.

Chapter 1 lays the foundation for the initial, "candidate evaluation" section of the volume. In this chapter; Ottati, Wyer, Deiger, and Houston outline the process whereby voters acquire and use political information to arrive at a voting preference. This chapter also provides a taxonomy of various criteria that are known to influence voting preference (e.g., partisanship, issue stances, trait perceptions). Numerous

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x Preface

researchers have noted that stereotypes (e.g., racial stereotypes) can play an impor­tant role in determining voting preference. In Chapter 2, Huddy and Capelos focus on how gender stereotypes influence voters' attitudes toward a candidate. Next, Isbell and Ottati examine how voters' episodic affective reactions influence their evaluation of a candidate (Chapter 3). This analysis includes both direct and indirect effects of emotion on candidate evaluation judgments. In Chapter 4, Ottati and Deiger explore how visual cues impact voting preference. This chapter specifically focuses on the role of candidate physical attractiveness and facial expression. Chapter 5, the last chapter in this section, examines a factor often neglected by mainstream political psy­chologists. Specifically, O'Connell and Kowal consider how a candidate's speaking eloquence might influence voters' preferences for a candidate.

The second section of this volume examines the psychological underpinnings of public opinion on various policy issues. In the first chapter in this section, Skitka and Mullen provide a comprehensive introduction to this area by reviewing evidence regarding how self-interest, group-interest, values, affect, and attribution serve to determine public opinion regarding political issues (Chapter 6). In Chapter 7, Pratto and Cathey consider the role of social ideologies in legitimizing public opinion. This chapter conceptualizes "social dominance orientation" as a fundamental determinant of voters' policy opinions. In the last chapter of this section, Jason, Taylor, and Richman demonstrate how psychologists can playa proactive role in changing pub­lic policy opinion on a specific issue (Chapter 8). Here, public policy regarding treat­ment of a medical illness (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) serves as the central focus.

The third section of this volume considers the political behavior of collectives by adopting a group perspective. In democratic societies, many of the major political decisions are made by groups (e.g., U.S. Congress). In addition, many social groups define themselves based on stances they take on political issues-e.g., the NRA, NOW, Greenpeace, etc. Thus, one of the areas where social psychology is most rele­vant to politics is in terms of intra- and inter-group behavior. In the first chapter of this section, Smith and Diven (Chapter 9) focus on the potential for social influence by minorities. They emphasize not only what social psychology has learned about minority influence, but also address issues in the political realm that can both inform and reorient social psychological thinking on this issue. Next, Abrams and Randsley de Moura (Chapter 10), look at the behavior of political groups from the perspective of social identity theory. They address the issue of when groups will act (e.g., protest, boycott, etc.) by looking at group identity (the degree to which members identity themselves in terms of the group), relative deprivation (perceptions of disadvantage relative to other groups), and collective efficacy (perceptions of the group's ability to be effective). Finally, Kameda, Hulbert, and Tindale (Chapter 11) deal with "agenda effects" in groups. All formal political groups operate under some set of rules, pro­cedures, etc. that often involve which issues will be acted on in what order and in what way. Rules, agendas, etc. are often seen as benign and irrelevant, but sophisticated politicians can use such procedures to their advantage. The chapter uses empirical results and computer simulations to demonstrate both how and why agendas can impact the outcomes of decision-making groups.

Preface xi

Theory and research in political psychology has progressed to a stage where scientists are applying cutting edge methodologies toward understanding and describ­ing the psychological underpinnings of political behavior. It is our hope that this vol­ume will provide the reader with an appreciation of these recent developments and inspire continued research and theorizing in this exciting area.

References

Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., Miller, W. E., & Stokes, D. E. (1960). The American voter. New York: Wiley. Downs, A. (1957). An economic theory of democracy. New York: Harper & Row. Lazarsfeld, P., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1949). The people's choice (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia

University Press.

Acknowledgments

This volume on the social psychology of politics is the result of collaboration among many individuals and organizations. This is the fifth volume in the series on Social Psychological Applications to Social Issues, and it represents the efforts of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), Plenum Press, and Loyola University Chicago's graduate program in applied social psychology.

We thank the officers and publication committee of SPSSI for giving us the opportunity to edit this series. We would also like to thank the editorial and produc­tion staffs of Plenum Press, especially Eliot Werner, for their help on this project.

Many individuals assisted in reviewing drafts of the chapters. These include James H. Davis, Amanda Dykema-Engblade, Megan Deiger, Melanie LaForce, Helen Meisenhelder, Linda Perloff, Robert Russell, and Paul Yarnold. We thank these indi­viduals for their efforts.

Finally, we thank our 23 authors whose work has helped to maintain political psychology as a prominent field within social psychology, and whose efforts continue to lead the way for new insights and developments in this exciting area.

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VICTOR C. OrrATI

R. SCOTI TINDALE

JOHN EDWARDS

FRED B. BRYANT

LINDA HEATH

DANIEL C. O'CONNELL

YOLANDA SUAREZ-BALCAZAR

EMIL J. POSAVAC

Contents

Part I: The Psychological Determinants of Candidate Evaluation

1. The Psychological Determinants of Candidate Evaluation and Voting Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Victor C. Ottati, Robert S. Wyer, Megan Deiger, and David Houston

2. Gender Stereotyping and Candidate Evaluation: Good News and Bad News for Women Politicians. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Leonie Huddy and Theresa Capelos

3. The Emotional Voter: Effects of Episodic Affective Reactions on Candidate Evaluation ........................ 55

Linda M. Isbell and Victor C. Ottati

4. Visual Cues and the Candidate Evaluation Process 75

Victor C. Ottati and Megan Deiger

5. Political Eloquence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Daniel C. O'Connell and Sabine Kowal

Part II: Political Psychology and Public Policy

6. Psychological Determinants of Public Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Linda 1. Skitka and Elizabeth Mullen

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xvi Contents

7. The Role of Social Ideologies in Legitimizing Political Attitudes and Public Policy .............. . . . . . . . . 135

Felicia Pratto and Christie Cathey

8. The Role of Science and Advocacy Regarding a Chronic Health Condition: The Case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ........... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Leonard A. Jason, Renee R. Taylor, and Judith A. Richman

Part III: Collective Political Action: Intra- and Intergroup Perspective

9. Minority Influence and Political Interest Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Christine M. Smith and Polly J. Diven

10. The Psychology of Collective Political Protest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Dominic Abrams and Georgina Randsley de Moura

11. Procedural and Agenda Effects on Political Decisions by Small Groups

Tatsuya Kameda, Lome Hulbert, and R. Scott Tindale

215

Index. . . . . ... . . . . .. . .. . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241