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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Modeling The Development & Expression Of Political Opinion: A Zallerian Approach, Avery C. Ellis
Modeling The Development & Expression Of Political Opinion: A Zallerian Approach, Avery C. Ellis
Honors Projects
Research focused on John Zaller's famous RAS model of political opinion formation and change from "The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion" (1992). Analyzed the mathematical and psychological underpinnings of the model, the first paper to do so in over fifteen years and the first to do so through an analysis of motivated reasoning and Bayesian reasoning. Synthesized existing critiques of Zaller's model and other literature to suggest ways to build on Zaller, utilizing fundamental reunderstandings of opinions and messages from political and mathematical perspectives. Found verification for Zaller's model, confirming its value, but also found support for the proposed …
The American Political Mindset: The Relationship Of Exceptionalism And Cynicism In Public Opinion, Anya Kaiser 3068310
The American Political Mindset: The Relationship Of Exceptionalism And Cynicism In Public Opinion, Anya Kaiser 3068310
Honors Projects
This research investigates the pervasiveness of both political cynicism and American exceptionalism within American society. Throughout history, there has been an interaction between the public's feelings of American exceptionalism and cynicism in the United States, starting at the nation’s founding and continuing into recent times (Chaloupka, 1999). As an inter-disciplinary and mixed-methods study, this research utilizes both a nationally representative quantitative data-set and a qualitative analysis of Allen Ginsberg’s (1959) poem “America,” a cultural representation of the relationship between American exceptionalism and cynicism. Using the American National Election Studies’ 2012 survey on trust in government (N = 5,914), I examine …