Public Opinion and Political Communication - Sessions 3-10

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture notes.

Public Opinion

The aggregate views of a population on political issues, leaders, and policies, shaped by social processes and culture.

Opinion Formation

The process by which individuals form political attitudes through memory, information processing, and social input.

Public Opinion in Politics

Public opinion influences policy debates, not just campaigns, and helps shape how proposals are presented.

Legitimacy

The acceptance and support of government by the public, contributing to political stability.

Social Processes

The social forces and institutions that by interaction produce public opinion (demographics, family life, culture).

Demographic Profile

The changing composition of a population (age, race, income) that affects opinions.

Inglehart-Welzel World Cultural Map

A map of world cultures based on value orientations (e.g., survival vs. self-expression).

Survival vs. Self-Expression Values

A dimension distinguishing traditional, survival-oriented values from expressive, self-fulfillment values.

Direction (of Opinion)

Whether public opinion leans positively or negatively on an issue.

Intensity

The strength or firmness of an opinion.

Stability

The consistency of opinions over time.

Polls

Systematic surveys used to gauge public opinion.

Surveys

Structured data collection instruments to measure what the public thinks.

Survey Response Dynamics

How responses are shaped by accessible thoughts and question design at the moment of answering.

Accessibility of Thoughts

Thoughts that are readily retrievable at response time and influence answers.

Saliency

The prominence of ideas in memory that drive survey responses.

Response Instability

Frequent shifts in survey answers over time; only about 45-55% are consistent.

Ambivalence

Holding opposing or mixed attitudes on an issue.

Nonattitudes

Converse’s idea that many respondents lack stable attitudes, producing random-like answers.

Stop-and-Think Probes

Open-ended probes asked before answering to elicit immediate thoughts.

Prospective vs. Retrospective Probes

Prospective probes occur before questions; retrospective probes after answering.

Attitude Crystallization

The notion of stable attitudes crystallizing; criticized as metaphoric and unreliable.

Three-Stage Experimental Design (Exposure-Delay-Evaluation)

Stage 1: information exposure; Stage 2: delay; Stage 3: recall/evaluation.

On-Line (OL) Model

Voters continuously update a running tally of feelings as new information arrives.

Memory-Based Model

Voters form evaluations primarily from recalled messages and details.

The Responsive Voter

Idea that voters respond to campaign information in real time, not just from memory.

OL Tally

The affective running tally stored in memory guiding judgments.

Memory Decay

Forgetting of campaign details over time, while overall evaluations may stay stable.

Voter Responsiveness

Voters respond to the full complexity of campaign information, not only memories.

Experimental Design (Causal Inference)

Using random assignment to infer causal effects of treatments.

Random Assignment

Every subject has an equal chance of being placed in any treatment condition.

Treatment vs. Control

Treatment: exposed to the intervention; Control: not exposed.

Internal Validity

Confidence that observed effects are caused by the treatment within the study context.

External Validity

Generalizability of causal findings to other people, settings, or times.

Between-Subjects vs Within-Subjects

Between-subjects: different participants in groups; Within-subjects: same participants tested across times.

Nonresponse Bias

Bias from differential response rates among groups in surveys.

Turnout Model

Models used to estimate who will vote and adjust survey weights.

Weighting

Adjusting survey data to match population demographics.

Late Swing

Last-minute changes in voting preferences that alter polling accuracy.

Shy Voters

Undeclared supporters whose true preferences differ from poll responses.

Misinformation

False or unsupported information that misleads public opinion.

Misperceptions

Beliefs that contradict the best available evidence, often held with certainty.

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to seek information that confirms preexisting beliefs.

Disconfirmation Bias

Disregarding information that contradicts one’s beliefs.

Backfire Effect

Corrective information strengthens misperceptions rather than correcting them.

Fact-Checking Organizations

Groups like Politifact, FactCheck.org, Snopes that verify claims.

Corrective Information

Information aimed at correcting misinformation; effectiveness varies.

Graphical Corrections

Using visuals to improve understanding of corrective information.

Heuristics

Cognitive shortcuts voters use to simplify political judgments.

Civic Knowledge

Knowledge about civics, government, and political processes.

What element is crucial when designing an informed consent question in a survey experiment?

Ensuring participants understand the purpose and their rights

What term describes the intentional creation and dissemination of false information with the goal to mislead?

Disinformation

Misinformation

Incorrect or misleading information that is spread regardless of intent.

What did Hary Frankfurt mean by “bullshit” in the context of political communication?

Communication that disregards factual integrity

How agenda setting and framing interact in political communication?

Agenda setting determines which issues are important, while framing influences how those issues are presented and interpreted

What does Mudde’s assertion that “the populist voter does not exist” imply?

Voter preferences for populism vary contextually based on political and socioeconomic conditions

what are the potential consequences of eco-chambers in political communication?

it can lead to polarization, reinforce existing biases, and hider dialogue and understanding among different groups

What tends to happen to presidential approval ratings leading up to midterm elections?

They typically decline for the president’s party

According to the McCombs and Shaw Chapel Hill 1972 survey, what relationship did they find between the media agenda and citizens’ issue rankings?

A near perfect correlation