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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Voting At Home Is Associated With Lower Cortisol Than Voting At The Polls, Jayme Neiman, Karl Evan Giuseffi, Kevin B. Smith, Jeffrey French, Israel Waismel-Manor, John R. Hibbing Sep 2015

Voting At Home Is Associated With Lower Cortisol Than Voting At The Polls, Jayme Neiman, Karl Evan Giuseffi, Kevin B. Smith, Jeffrey French, Israel Waismel-Manor, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Previous research finds that voting is a socially stressful activity associated with increases in cortisol levels. Here we extend this research by investigating whether different voting modalities have differential effects on the stress response to voting. Results from a field experiment conducted during the 2012 presidential elections strongly suggest that traditional “at the polls” voting is more stressful, as measured by increases in cortisol levels, than voting at home by mail-in ballot or engaging in comparable non-political social activities. These findings imply that increased low-stress voting options such as mail-in ballots may increase political participation among individuals who are sensitive …


Reflective Liberals And Intuitive Conservatives: A Look At The Cognitive Reflection Test And Ideology, Kristen D. Deppe, Frank J. Gonzalez, Jayme Neiman, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Jackson Pahlke, Kevin Smith, John R. Hibbing Jul 2015

Reflective Liberals And Intuitive Conservatives: A Look At The Cognitive Reflection Test And Ideology, Kristen D. Deppe, Frank J. Gonzalez, Jayme Neiman, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Jackson Pahlke, Kevin Smith, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Prior research finds that liberals and conservatives process information differently. Predispositions toward intuitive versus reflective thinking may help explain this individual level variation. There have been few direct tests of this hypothesis and the results from the handful of studies that do exist are contradictory. Here we report the results of a series of studies using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) to investigate inclinations to be reflective and political orientation. We find a relationship between thinking style and political orientation and that these effects are particularly concentrated on social attitudes. We also find it harder to manipulate intuitive and reflective …


Love Thy Neighbor? Trust In Foreigners And Support For Transnational Policies, Sergio Wals, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Frank J. Gonzalez, Tess Gosda Jan 2015

Love Thy Neighbor? Trust In Foreigners And Support For Transnational Policies, Sergio Wals, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Frank J. Gonzalez, Tess Gosda

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

This study assesses the extent to which individual levels of trust in foreigners relate to preferences about regional transnational policies. We use a nationally representative survey from Mexico (2003), an emerging democracy with relatively high levels of nationalism and several multinational trade agreements. We argue that clarifying the target of social trust is essential for understanding the attitudes of citizens of less powerful countries toward the international policy realm. Statistical analysis strongly suggests that in fact trust in foreigners, above generalized trust, is key to understanding such attitudes. Our results indicate that trust in foreigners among Mexican respondents is positively …


Determinants Of Rural Latino Trust In The Federal Government, Nathan Munier, Julia Albarracin, Keith Boeckelman Jan 2015

Determinants Of Rural Latino Trust In The Federal Government, Nathan Munier, Julia Albarracin, Keith Boeckelman

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Trust in government is essential to democratic practice. This article analyzed the factors shaping trust in the federal government using a survey of 260 Mexican immigrants living in rural Illinois and in-depth interviews with 32 participants. To analyze these data, we drew a distinction between support for the regime (system of government that is relatively stable in a political system) and support for authorities (those who temporarily occupy positions of power) to test whether regime or authorities’ considerations shaped respondents’ political trust. The results showed that both considerations influenced trust in the federal government. We also found that a perception …


Her Ladyship Chief Justice: The Rise Of Female Leaders In The Judiciary In Africa, Josephine Dawuni, Alice Kang Jan 2015

Her Ladyship Chief Justice: The Rise Of Female Leaders In The Judiciary In Africa, Josephine Dawuni, Alice Kang

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

In recent years, women have been selected as leaders of African judiciaries. This article identifies where and when women have become chief justices and presidents of constitutional courts from 1990 to 2014. We profile women from three civil-law and three common-law countries and find that the women selected meet or exceed the requirements for holding the highest position in the judiciary. We then explore why some African countries, but not others, have had female judicial leaders. We initially find that the selection method may be less important than the type of legal system, the commitment of gatekeepers, the end of …


The Genetic And Environmental Foundations Of Political, Psychological, Social, And Economic Behaviors: A Panel Study Of Twins And Families, Peter K. Hatemi, Kevin Smith, John R. Alford, Nicholas G. Martin, John R. Hibbing Jan 2015

The Genetic And Environmental Foundations Of Political, Psychological, Social, And Economic Behaviors: A Panel Study Of Twins And Families, Peter K. Hatemi, Kevin Smith, John R. Alford, Nicholas G. Martin, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Here we introduce the Genetic and Environmental Foundations of Political and Economic Behaviors: A Panel Study of Twins and Families (PIs Alford, Hatemi, Hibbing, Martin, and Smith). This study was designed to explore the genetic and environmental influences on social, economic, and political behaviors and attitudes. It involves identifying the psychological mechanisms that operate on these traits, the heritability of complex economic and political traits under varying conditions, and specific genetic correlates of attitudes and behaviors. In addition to describing the study, we conduct novel analyses on the data, estimating the heritability of two traits so far unexplored in the …