Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Factors In Decision Making Of Political Candidates, Levi Ramirez Garcia

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

What factors impact the decision to run as non-partisan over one of the major US parties? It is essential to analyze this phenomenon to determine the real motivations of candidates and the party they represent because they impact society as a whole. The candidates' ideologies and how the candidates feel representing the parties' ideologies are the main reasons for choosing non-partisan over one of the major US parties. This occurs because humans tend to work where they feel comfortable and in places with the same values and ideologies as them. It is the same in the case of candidates; they …

Peacekeeping The Commons: Un Peacekeeping Moderates The Effects Of Climate Change On Intercommunal Conflict, Cara Hunter

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The effects of climate change have been increasingly linked to the risk of intercommunal conflict, as climatic shocks have been shown to increase resource scarcity. Policymakers and academics agree that effectively designed institutions are critical variables in preventing and mitigating conflict, particularly in ecologically-fragile areas. However, there is a lack of evidence on the specific ways to strengthen institutions in the face of climate change, especially in conflict-affected settings. We argue that UN Peacekeeping Operations moderate the effects of climate change on intercommunal conflict by strengthening institutions governing common-pool resources (CPRs) to increase cooperation between communities sharing scarce resources. We …

Fear Of China's Economic Power: Media And Party Affiliation On Public Opinion, Cloe Hughes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The United States and China are the world’s two greatest economic rivals. The US-China trade war–which started in 2018–is a result of this battle for economic hegemony and has raged on for the past six years. While trade decisions are ultimately up to policymakers, public opinion is a large factor in international policy decisions, and American biases against the Chinese may adversely affect both the American and Chinese economies. In this paper, I will examine how factors including media consumption and partisanship impact American attitudes towards China’s economy overtaking the United States’ economy. Previous research has studied the effects of …

The Gender Divide: Exploring Gender Patterns Of Perceived And Realistic Risks Of Murder By Unknown And Known Perpetrators, Haley Forth

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In a society where vulnerability is often associated with femininity, women are depicted as helpless victims, which in turn underscores the gendered challenges faced by both men and women. It is thought that gender disparities among women increase the likelihood of fear and risk of murder victimization. Rather, both men and women face homicide at significant rates where gender vulnerability is correlated to different types of violence. In this paper, I examine the complexities of gendered perceptions of perceived and realistic risks behind the fear of being murdered by someone you know and murdered by a stranger. Relying on the …

The Contemporary Causes Of Americans' Fear Of Illegal Immigration, Amilie Cai

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Annually, the U.S. aspires to extend its liberality by opening its border to more than ten thousand refugees. In this paper, I examine how political party identification, census region, and internet usage influence U.S. adults' fear of illegal immigration. Relying on the 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears, a representative national sample of U.S. adults, I find that political party has remained a consistent predictor for an American’s fear of illegal immigration, with people who align themselves with the Republican Party in 2022 being more afraid of illegal immigration compared to other political parties, such as the Democrat Party. In …

An Educated Guess: The Impact Of Education On Conspiracy Theories And Voting, Ellie Bickelhaupt

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

How strongly does education impact one's perception and opinion of conspiracy theories and voting? Throughout the years, conspiracy theories have been a rising trend in recent years that many people find entertaining, but many believe to be actual facts. The impact of one's education level can substantially change a person's beliefs in conspiracy theories and overall trust in the government. This trend has been shown by analyzing media consumption, education status, and the American National Election survey. This research will compare the trends between education level and conspiracy theory beliefs and how both affect a person's voting behavior. This research …

Navigating Islamophobia: Exploring Attitudes Towards Muslim Immigration And Policing, Devansh Mehta

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, Islamophobic dispositions in the United States have surged within its political and societal arenas. In this paper, I will examine two specific dimensions of Islamophobia such as ceasing immigration from Muslim countries and increased police presence in Muslim neighborhoods and how those behaviors may be influenced by political affiliation and different ways news is consumed using social media and cable news. Relying on the Chapman Survey of American Fears, a representative national sample of U.S. adults completed a forty-question survey in which I tested the above independent variables to see their individual effects on …

Ontological Complexity Of Interpolity Orders: The Encounter Between Chosŏn And Tibet In Qing, Inho Choi, Minju Kwon

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

This article examines the ontological complexity of interpolity orders with a focus on peripheral polities in the Qing order. Existing multiculturalist studies of the Qing order emphasized diverse cultural representations of a single imperial reality, lacking an understanding of multiple realities experienced by peripheral participants. Our analysis reveals the ontological complexity—rather than cultural diversity—of the Qing order, in which multiple ontological agents experienced different lived worlds, from the encounter between Chosŏn Korean envoys and the Tibetan Panchen Lama at Emperor Qianlong’s birthday ceremony. By analyzing the Chosŏn envoy member Pak Chiwŏn’s travelog and Tibetan records, we argue that the Chosŏn …

Fear Of Immigrants And Immigration In American Society, Sabrina Laib

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Immigrants, regardless of status, are portrayed as a threat to American society through the media. This paper will investigate Americans and their fear of non White immigrants and naturalized citizens through the theories of immigration threat, social identity theory, group cue, and the so-called freeloader problem. Due to the rise of xenophobic rhetoric being parroted by American politicians such as the Muslim ban enacted during the time of former President Trump’s presidency, the U.S. border control’s violence towards central American refugees, as well as undocumented laborers that Florida’s Governor DeSantis did not want working in his state anymore, leading to …

The Role Of Generational Status In Latino Voting Behavior And Partisanship, Isabella Stoddart

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In recent years, there has been a notable divergence in the voting behavior of Latinos and Hispanics in the United States across generations, including an uptick in Republican vote share in regions such as South Florida. There has been a lack of consensus as to why this is occurring and literature seeking to explain this phenomenon has been limited in its evaluations and has failed to control for variables such as age, gender, education level, and religiosity. There has also been an overemphasis on the role political assimilation and voter participation play for this minority group. This study theorizes that …

America’S Fear Of Civil Unrest Through The Lens Of 2020 Blm Protests And January 6th, Morgan Romine

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Over the past five years, the United States of America (US) has experienced events which highlight societal weakness and faults in the foundations of the US system. This research paper focuses on the level of fear a participant has of civil unrest in the US, how that fear has evolved following the events of 2020, including the January 6th Insurrection and 2020’s summer of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Factoring the age, political affiliation, and socio-economic status of the study’s participants into the findings, is a way to understand where the participant’s fear may be stemming from. My research uses …

Media Consumption And Islamophobia, Anastasia Athanasiadi

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Islamophobia has been a growing issue in the United States, especially after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center twin towers in 2001, from innocent people being harassed on the street or various social media platforms to a Muslim ban implemented by former President Donald Trump. The rise of online media has allowed individuals, organizations, politicians, and news outlets to post their opinions/ articles that perpetuate a fear of Muslims in the United States and worldwide. As media consumption has skyrocketed in recent years, American society has become more exposed to Islamophobic content than ever before, and its effects …

The Truth About Partisan Affiliation: Fear, Trust, And Media, Hailey Merin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

As the father of Western logic, Aristotle's research of the scientific method of analysis, biology, and psychology has been adopted by present-day America. If America has openly accepted an array of Aristotle's teachings, why have they ignored his observations that political parties are non-Democratic?

This research explores the relationship between political party affiliation, sentiment toward the government, and media influence on fear of corrupt government officials. Firstly, this paper examines the idea that sentiments toward the government are influenced by partisan affiliation. Secondly, it determines that after the 2020 election, Republicans fear corrupt government officials more than any other major …

The Pride Pipeline: Violent Nationalism In The United States, Emily Veloz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

A striking rise in American Nationalism has emerged due to varying factors; however, a particular selection of identities have acted as primary contributors to this phenomenon. This piece navigates the increasing application of violence in the political arena in tandem with the impacts of racial, socioeconomic, and social factors that have fueled this collective aggression. Previous research points toward the hyperpolarization that has been perpetuated by political figures and media outlets, the augmentation of a psychological us-vs.-them mentality, and the perceived threat to American hegemony across the globe. Through an analysis of data provided by the 9th edition of the …

The Professionalization Of The Supreme Court, Ruben Lopez-Apodaca

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The professional and personal backgrounds of Supreme Court Justices are becoming increasingly similar. Nearly all sitting justices hold degrees from an Ivy league law school and have experience as federal circuit judges. In earlier periods this was not the case. The Stone Court of the 1940’s had six Ivy League alumni and one judge with federal circuit experience. This begs the question, when and why did this shift take place? This study will provide an overview of the occupational and educational backgrounds of every justice from 1910 to the present, in addition to Supreme Court nominees of the same period …

Who Is Most Likely To Fear Financial Collapse, Robert Hutchens

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

§The United States has the largest economy in the world and yet Americans are often worried or concerned about the state of the economy and the effect of the economy on their lives. In this paper I examine the complex relationships between groups of people and their fear and opinion of financial collapse; specifically looking into the rationale and influences behind those opinions. Using the Chapman University American Fears Survey, I found a strong correlation between low income and fear of financial collapse, especially amongst those who make less than fifty thousand dollars a year. Education is also shown to …

Information Inflation: How Social Media News Consumption Contributes To Societal And Political Fears, Owen Cotton

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

By permitting each American to be exposed to countless amounts of information through social media, platforms have become even more influential for public perception. Since the establishment of social media platforms the United States has certainly seen an increase in political and social disputes, particularly during the last couple presidencies. In this paper I will examine what is the link between growing concerns of public unrest and social media, and to what extent the next generations of Americans are affected. With a partial focus on feelings resulting from the January 6th riots in 2021, I will examine to what extent …

The Missing Link: Informal Political Elites And Protest In Areas Of Limited Statehood, Patrick Hunnicutt, Kou Gbaintor-Johnson

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

What explains protest mobilization in areas of limited statehood, where the government struggles to make and enforce rules? We adapt existing theory to explain protest mobilization through a comparative perspective, beginning with the proposition that informal political elites who mediate citizens’ interactions with the government in areas of limited statehood represent a crucial but understudied source of political opportunity. We specifically argue that informal political elites who are effective intermediaries between citizens and the state moderate the relationship between grievances and protest at the individual-level. Six months of fieldwork in Liberia substantiates this claim. Leveraging an original, high-frequency household panel …

Crossing The Line: Evidence For The Categorization Theory Of Spatial Voting, Mark Pickup, Erik O. Kimbrough, Eline A. De Rooij

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Bølstad and Dinas (2017) propose a model of spatial voting, based on social identity theory, that suggests supporting a candidate/policy on the other side of the ideological spectrum has a disutility that is not accounted for by common spatial models. Unfortunately, the data they use cannot speak directly to whether the disutility arises because individuals perceive their ideology as a social identity. We present the results of an experimental study that measures the norm against crossing the ideological spectrum; tests the cost of doing so, controlling for spatial effects; and demonstrates that this cost increases with the salience and strength …

Bibliography For "Constitution Day Display", Isabella Piechota

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to accompany a display about Constitution Day in August 2023 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.

Disaffection And Othering: Beyond Our Coordinates, Christen Kadkhodai

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

"Othering” is just one of many tools nations use during war time to garner support for the war effort. “Othering” in media often goes undetected, a subtle framing of one’s own viewpoint as the viewpoint and the gaze, often at the exclusion and alienation of others. This collection of essays explores how individuals and institutions “Othered” during wartime. Essays “A Review of Walt Disney’s Life and ‘Othering’” and “Walt Disney’s ‘Reluctant Dragon’ and the 1941 Strike,” study how and why Walt Disney “Othered” certain audiences in his films The Reluctant Dragon, Saludos Amigos, and The Three Caballeros. …

Review Of Thorne, Benjamin, The Figure Of The Witness In International Criminal Tribunals: Memory, Atrocities And Transitional Justice, Art Blaser, Trinity Huynh

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Benjamin Thorne's The Figure of the Witness in International Criminal Tribunals: Memory, Atrocities and Transitional Justice.

Democratic Commitment In The Middle East: A Conjoint Analysis, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Polls from the Middle East/North Africa show high support for democracy. However, the veracity of this support has been called into question. This study uses a conjoint analysis to show that citizens support democratic institutions, as well as favoring an effective welfare state and a state religion. The results demonstrate that support for elected governance is not contingent on the state's providing economic benefits; citizens are more likely to favor participatory government at each level of economic outcome. Interest in incorporating religion in the state, however, is contingent on the political and economic profile described; the contingent effects suggest interest …

The Effects Of Media Usage On Climate Change Beliefs, Leia Hernandez

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The subject of climate change has been a controversial debate for the past decade on whether it is real or just a myth. In this paper, the research that is found from various surveys will examine the correlation between fear of climate change and types of media usage. The correlation between fear of climate change and a person’s media usage will also demonstrate how media usage affects and shapes public opinion. The data associated with the fear of climate change was collected through the Chapman University American Fear Survey (CSAF). The survey sample was conducted on 1035 participants which is …

Conspiracy Beliefs: A Threat To Political Stability, Robert Arellano

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The United States may be the most powerful nation on Earth, yet its people still have endured both hardships and tragedies. Events such as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the terrorist attacks on September 11^th, the AIDS crisis, and the bombings of Pearl Harbor are all tragic events that have influenced American cultural fears. But the trauma and painful memories of tragic events have led some Americans to question any form of authority, even without evidence. In this paper, I examine the extent to which distrust in authority, fear, and overall pessimism lead to conspiratorial thinking. …

Climate Change Skepticism: Who And Why?, Mia Huyen Truong

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Despite persistent scientific consensus urging immediate action, political polarization, and skepticism have hindered effective climate change mitigation, especially in the United States. This paper explores the factors influencing climate change attitudes among different groups, focusing on right-wing affiliates and Christian believers. Drawing on the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis (McCright and Dunlap, 2001-2010) and Information Processing Theory (Wood & Vedlitz, 2007), we investigate the effects of individual characteristics, including partisan ideology, party identification, educational attainment, and Christian faith. Using Wave 7 (2021) of the Chapman Survey of American Fears Survey, a nationwide sample of different fears among U.S. adults, this study aims to …

How Donald Trump And The 2016 Presidential Election Eclipsed Frank Underwood’S Election In ‘House Of Cards’, Charna Flam

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

In 2016, the U.S. faced a seismic change in national politics and the evolution of the entertainment industry. As the rise of streaming services had finally hit its stride, Netflix, the industry disruptor, had released a steady stream of critically acclaimed series, most notably beginning with the platform’s first original program, House of Cards. The series’ main character, Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) would become a fixture within the television landscape at the time, as both political dramas and anti-hero series were at all-time high, but what the writers of House of Cards did not expect was how their plotlines would …

Manufacturing A Protestant Consensus: Religion And Regime Entrenchment In The Eisenhower Era, John W. Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

The party regime concept is central to the study of American political development. Yet many questions about the processes through which party regimes are created, maintained, and dismantled remain unanswered. This article argues that religious bodies have historically played an important role in these processes. Specifically, I demonstrate that “mainline” Protestant groups made three distinct contributions to the entrenchment of the post–New Deal Democratic regime. First, the National Council of Churches (NCC) credibly reframed Democratic policy commitments as embodying universal values (as opposed to the preferences of favored interest groups). Second, the NCC's economic policy arm, which included representatives from …

Theorising From The Land: House Or Tipi Of Ir?, Justin De Leon

Ethnic Studies Faculty Articles and Research

In 2004, Anna Agathangelou and L.H.M. Ling wrote their important intervention, entitled ‘The House of IR: From Family Power Politics to the Poises of Worldism,’ that ordered various theories of International Relations within an analogy of a colonial household, calling instead for a Worldism that builds communities based on interests and support. One glaring omission from this analysis, however, is mention of indigeneity. Increasingly, in North America, the experiences of Indigenous peoples are shaping national imaginations and popular political discourses – take for instance Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Standing Rock, and Mauna Kea, to …

Measuring Ethnodoxy In Egypt And Morocco, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Ethnodoxy is the conceptual linkage of an ethnic group with a particular religion. It has been previously documented in Slavic Orthodox communities. This study uses Arabic-language surveys in Egypt and Morocco to measure this ethno-religious linkage among Arab Muslims. It develops a parsimonious survey scale for measuring ethnodoxy. It also demonstrates that ethnodox and non-ethnodox Egyptians and Moroccans have different political preferences, both for regime type and for the role of religion in politics.