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Political Belief Networks: Socio-Cognitive Heterogeneity In American Public Opinion, Delia Baldassarri, Amir Goldberg
Political Belief Networks: Socio-Cognitive Heterogeneity In American Public Opinion, Delia Baldassarri, Amir Goldberg
Working Papers
Most research on public opinion assumes that American political views are structured by a belief system with a clearly-defined liberal-conservative polarity; however, this is not true of all Americans. In this article we document systematic heterogeneity in the organization of political attitudes and explain its basis in the sociodemographic profile of the respondents. We use Relational Class Analysis (RCA), a network-based method for detecting heterogeneity in collective patterns of opinion, to identify distinctive belief networks, each shared by a different group of respondents. Analyzing ANES data between 1984 and 2004, we identify three groups of American citizens: Ideologues, whose political …
Politics, Influence, And The Small Scale Organization Of Political Communication Networks, Robert Huckfeldt, Paul Johnson
Politics, Influence, And The Small Scale Organization Of Political Communication Networks, Robert Huckfeldt, Paul Johnson
2010
This paper addresses the factors that give rise to both heterogeneous and homogeneous opinion distributions within political communication networks. We argue that the factors sustaining homogeneity and heterogeneity are not entirely symmetrical – heterogeneity is not necessarily explained by treating it as the flip side of homogeneity. Two primary questions guide the effort. If influence within a dyad depends on the distribution of opinions beyond the dyad, is dyadic influence contingent on the construction of the network within which the dyad is located? In particular, how does the micro-structure of the larger network affect the persuasiveness of communication within the …