Digital Commons Network^™

Dataset On Political Institutions In Authoritarian Regimes Around The Worlds, Joel Selway

Journal of Undergraduate Research

1. Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met

The Dataset was completed and two papers were produced. One has been sent out for review and the other presented at an annual political science conference.

Analyzing A Corpus Of President Trump’S Public Statements To Reveal Possible Media Bias, Kevin Zalewski, William Eggington

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In recent years, America has become extremely politically divided. As political polarization has increased, so has distrust of the media, especially during President Trump’s current term of office. The Media Insights Project reports that “just 17 percent of Americans give the news media high marks for being ‘very accurate.’” In this partisan political landscape, it can be difficult to know where to turn for unbiased, unspun news coverage. Where can a person learn what the president has said on a given topic without some type of filter coloring the information? This possible bias is a problem that corpus linguistics can …

How To Get The Attention Of Government Officials: A Test Of The Effectiveness Of Social Proof Treatments, Aubriana Wolferts, Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Social proof treatments—informing people about the behavior of their peers—have generally been shown effective in influencing subjects to engage in behavior due to a psychological desire to conform.1 Social proofs are more effective when they describe what peers typically do rather than what peers generally approve of, and when the social proof is more salient and closely related to the desired behavior.2

Funding American Democracy, Michael Barber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The academic objectives of the project were largely met. Students participated in a number of research projects from beginning to end. Two students were included as coauthors on papers that were eventually published in academic journals. Other students participated throughout the process as research assistants. They collected data from archival sources, scraped data from webpages, merged a variety of existing datasets using computer software programs, and conducted analysis of these data using statistical programs.

Explaining Variation In Support For Refugees And Recent Immigrants In The United Kingdom, Katy Smith, Joshua Gubler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

On the heels of the Brexit vote and growing anxiety accompanied with leaving the European Union, immigration in the United Kingdom persists as a breaking point between native Britons, immigrants, and recent asylum seekers. To dispel the fervent animosity between these groups, humanization needs to occur in order for each party to see the others as their equal and develop long-term peaceful solutions. Decreasing ethnic conflict is often accomplished through increased positive interactions between groups. The perception is that many more refugees are being admitted into the country and yet most Brits are not acquainted with any. Introducing citizens to …

A Regional Party In Yorkshire?: The Proof Is In The Pudding, Elizabeth Whatcott, Dr. Joel Selway

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Within the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have all gained regional assemblies which manage local affairs including health care, economic growth, education, and other services. However, the Parliament in Westminster has devolved few responsibilities to local authorities in England. Under the Blair premiership, the government began a process of referendums that would introduce regional assemblies into the Northern regions, but after the North East referendum rejected the proposal in 2004, the devolution process sputtered to a halt. However, regionalism may be gaining new life in England. The Yorkshire Party, a regionalist party that explicitly seeks a regional assembly …

Attitudes Toward Economic Reform In Ukraine, Eliza Riley, Celeste Beesley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The transition from authoritarian, planned economies to democratic market economies is one of the most ambitious and momentous political-economic endeavors of the last century. As such, it is hardly surprising that the transition has been carried out with varying levels of success. Previous literature has examined features of the reforms (i.e. gradualism vs. shock therapy) or external monitoring, support and incentives (such as was available for aspiring EU members) as determinants of the probability of successful reform. This thesis contributes to our understanding of how public attitudes and beliefs about economic reforms may be a factor in the stalled or …

Improving The Bureaucracy: What Leads Government Officials To Use Evidence-Based Reports?, Nick Moffit, Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Many academics and government officials promote the use of scientifically rigorous policy evaluations, yet studies show that most practitioners seldom employ such evaluations, despite a growing body of policy-relevant academic literature. This represents a fundamental flaw of delegation, as citizens prefer the most efficient provision of public goods, but government officials fail to use available information to improve policy outcomes. This study examines how screening and monitoring of government officials are associated with practitioner engagement in academic research.

Bridge-Building: Effects Of Humanization In Conflict Resolution, Haley Petersen, Chris Karpowitz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Conflict resolution is a popular topic among political scientists, as seen in the study of controlled communication, concession-making, self-perceived victimhood, and threat perception. Previous work has shown that humanization between in-conflict groups is primarily successful when the expression of empathy is unrelated to the conflict itself and catalyzes “reciprocal empathy,” creating a more humanized perspective of the group as a whole (Gubler et al. 2015). While social psychologists and political scientists have shown how humanization can create empathy (Gubler et al. 2015), none had studied how humanization affects the shared choice set of policies for conflict resolution nor had anyone …

How Endorser Gender Affects Candidate Electability, Miranda Hatch, Connor Kreutz, Jessica Preece

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Across the world, and especially in the United States of America, women are severely underrepresented in government. Although most Americans claim to see men and women as equals, covert and unintentional sexism still permeates the political decisions they make1.One consequence of this inadvertent sexism is the common perception that women are typically seen as less authoritative than men when it comes to politics. One way that this authority can be seen in politics is through endorsements given about candidates2.

Gaming The Government: How To Get Government Officials To Engage With Evidence-Based Reports – Experimental Evidence From India, Tanzania, And Peru, James Hodgson, Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Important policy decisions, that affect lives all around the world, are often made without consulting the best available evidence. Many governments have called for an increase in evidence-based policy making in an effort to make policies more effective and based on research. From the baseline survey we collected we found that while 92% of government officials said they thought using evidenced based reports would improve the quality of their work, only 8% reported that they use evidence based reports in all of their policy decisions. Academics and program evaluators have amassed a large knowledge base on the effectiveness of public …

Does The Name “Trumpcare” Mean Anything To You?: How The Colloquial Naming Of Healthcare Legislation In The United States Influences Approval, Mandi Eatough, Dr. Jessica Preece

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Legislation in the United States is often referred to by colloquial names rather than by the full bill title. Existing research suggests that the nomenclature used for legislation in the United States is often intentionally meant to influence the perception of the legislation by the public1. The phenomenon of colloquial legislation naming has been seen recently in the naming of healthcare legislation with the Affordable Care Act (colloquially Obamacare) and the American Health Care Act (colloquially Trumpcare). Polls run in 2017 related to healthcare reform suggest that the opinions Americans have on the ACA were likely not based on the …

Women Vs. Men Who Makes Better Use Of Financial Aid?, Nichole Christensen, Jessica Preece

Journal of Undergraduate Research

We analyze how being a federal financial aid recipient contributes to a person’s likelihood of graduation. We theorize that women who receive financial aid will be more likely to graduate than men who receive financial aid. This hypothesis can be viewed as a test of whether or not the economic development literature, which is primarily tested in Third World countries, may apply to First World settings. We also theorize that females who receive financial aid are more likely to graduate than both females and males who do not receive financial aid. We began by using the simplest model possible by …

The Effects Of Moral Framing On Environmental Attitudes, Ashlyn Bodily, Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Environmental issues are especially controversial in the current political landscape The purpose of this project was to better understand the effect of framing environmental issues in terms of the following values: (1) harm: disliking pain in others, (2) fairness: justice according to shared rules, (3) loyalty: standing with and sacrificing for your group, (4) authority: deference to tradition and legitimate authority, and (5) purity: avoiding that which is disgusting and revering that which is sacred. We were particularly interested in the effects of the loyalty and purity treatments, as these are frames that are not traditionally engaged in environmental messages. …

Influencing Political Tolerance Among Populists In The Uk, Stephen Black, Kirk Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In recent years, politics around the world have seen a drastic change in its elections. Not too long ago, Mexican leftist populist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador swept the elections in July 2018. It did not come as a surprise as several other countries, especially in Europe, have seen a wave of populism emerging with the election of centrist French President Emmanuel Macron and the reelection of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In this context, populists are generally those who view the world with an “us-versus-them” mentality and who see some sort of conspiring elite (often the government) who disregard the …

Populism And Emotions, Allison Adams, Kirk Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In November 2016, the United States elected a strongly populist candidate, Donald Trump, as President. This seems to be a part of a larger wave, one that includes the Brexit vote and parties that have come to power in Hungary, Poland, Greece, and Italy. Populism can have positive and negative effects on democratic institutions and social unity. Because of this, social scientists are trying to understand the reasons why populist parties win elections, especially how populist candidates win the support of individual voters.