Political Psychology Midterm 2

Cognition

How we acquire, process, use, store, and retrieve information to make judgements, inferences, and decisions

Example of Cognition - Bransford and Johnson

Description of a process → very vague and unspecific, couldn’t tell you what it was, but once labeled very easy to see how it makes sense.

Works because it shows how information is structured and stored in memory, and how facts are connected to one another

Script vs Schema

Script: procedural information

Schema: how information is organized

Balance Theory

People strive for a positive "balance" in their sentiments (like or dislike) towards others. For example, an "enemy of an enemy" is a "friend," and a "friend of an enemy" is an "enemy". Used to avoid cognitive dissonance, matching of associations to align sentiments → called a balanced triad

How can you tell if a triad is balanced?

Multiply all associations together, assuming a positive value for positive assumptions and vice versa for negatives (i.e. positive is +1 and negative is -1). If it results in a positive number, it is balanced.

What are the 2 models of candidate evaluation centering on memory?

1. Memory-Based Opinion

2. Online Opinion

What is the Memory-Based Opinion Model?

• developed by John Zoller, common sense based

• cognitive framework that suggests individuals form opinions by retrieving and evaluating information from their long-term memory at the moment they are asked to give a judgment

• Example

  • Bush v Gore Election

    • People start by seeing a story about Bush’s position on tax cuts, then a story about his drug use, and then a story about his support for the death penalty. Then asked about opinion on Election Day - have to recall specific pieces of evidence/information to construct overall attitude

• Problem w/ This

  • We may not remember all the information and our opinions about it 

• Paper by Hernstein: we walk around with all this information and have to pull it out/retrieve it on Election Day

  • we make judgements at the end, not as we go

What is the Online Opinion Model?

• Says that people process new information as it arrives, constantly updating an overall impression.

• Example

  • Bush v Gore Election

    • People start by seeing a story about Bush’s position on tax cuts (creates positive evaluation), then a story about his drug use (this is a negative so evaluation becomes neutral), and then a story about his support for the death penalty (positive evaluation again). Then asked about opinion on Election Day - report a positive attitude

• Most people can only come up with 1 or 2 pieces of information about candidates, more about overall feelings

Why do we study errors and biases?

• Looking to explain mistakes

  • Ex: Challenger Explosion, where they ignored and discounted relevant info and went ahead with the launch

• Show us something about how we normally think

  • Ex: efficiency vs accuracy trade offs, System 1 vs System 2 thinking, optical illusions like the Moon Illusion

Moon Illusion

An optical illusion where the Moon appears larger when it is near the horizon compared to when it is high in the sky

Caused by our brain's perception of distance and context, as the Moon is compared to terrestrial objects on the horizon, making it seem farther away and therefore larger to compensate. 

What are our cognitive tasks?

Judgement: assigning values based on a certain dimension

• Ex: Is Trump liberal or conservative? → ideological dimension, where do we perceive him to be?

Inference: solving problems using information we have available to make a decision/arrive at a conclusion, usually about something we don’t know

• Ex: Climate change → we don’t know the effects so we have to guess

Decision-Making: choice

• Ex: elections → have to make a choice about which candidate to support

• Usually done through groups or institutions

What is an example of how cognitive tasks work together?

Concealed Carry On Campus Example

Judgement: Guns are dangerous, is campus?

Inference: What would happen if we allowed CC on campus?

Decision: Vote on issue

What are cognitive challenges we face?

• Uncertainty: not enough, unreliable, or conflicting information

• Limitations and Vulnerabilities: we are liable to making mistakes, there are limits to human capacity

What is an example of one mental trap we fall victim to?

Sunk Cost Trap: where people continue an endeavor due to previously invested resources like time, money, or effort, even if continuing is no longer rational or beneficial

What is a heuristic?

A quick and easy way of thinking, similar to System 1, opposite of “algorithmic thinking”

Who are the primary researchers of the biases we learned about?

Kanheman and Tversky → from the 70s to early 2000s

What are the heuristics we learned about in class?

1. Availability

2. Representativeness

3. Simulation

Availability Heuristic

Judging likelihood/prevalence of a certain kind of event by how easy it is for us to remember specific examples of that kind of event

Ex: L experiment → are there more words that start with L or with L as the 3rd letter?

• Would think the 1st one, but it is actually the 2nd

• It is much easier to think of words with L as the first letter vs words with it as the 3rd

Representativeness Heuristic

Assigning a specific object to a certain category based on how closely it resembles, or represents, that category

Ex: Assuming that it is more likely that someone is both a bank teller and a feminist rather than just one or the other 

• intersection between the two is much rarer than each on its own

Simulation Heuristic

Assumption that an event is more likely to happen if we can easily imagine it

Ex: feeling more upset if a car accident was caused by an unusual event, such as taking the bus instead of driving

What are we studying when looking at political thinking?

The connection between attitudes, beliefs, and information

Attribution

Specific kind of belief that explains the cause/reason for a certain type of behavior. The we way answer this determines our reactions.

Not just behavior, but conditions.

Looking to explain/identifying cause of some behavior or situation

What are the two kinds/categories of attributions?

• Individual/Internal: something about them as a person 

• Situational/External: something about the situation, environmental factors, outside of themselves

Why does attribution matter?

• Fundamental Attribution Error: the tendency to overestimate the role of personality and underestimate the role of situational factors when explaining others' behavior

• Actor-Observer Difference: the tendency to attribute others' behavior to internal factors (like personality) while attributing your own behavior to external, situational factors

  • If shown actions from different POVs, differences are shown in attribution

Ideology and Attribution

Example of Looking at Why People Commit Crimes (On Average)

• Conservatives tend to explain this w/ internal attribution

• Liberals tend to explain this w/ external attribution 

Where this might be reversed → explanation of homosexuality

Ultimate Attribution Error

A cognitive bias that occurs when people attribute the negative behaviors of an out-group to their internal flaws, while attributing positive behaviors to luck or situational factors, and vice versa w/ their in-group

Disconfirmation Bias

A cognitive bias where individuals are more critical of, and expend more energy trying to refute, evidence that challenges their existing beliefs, while uncritically accepting information that supports those beliefs

Can beliefs shape ideas?

• most typically, we learn something that shapes our beliefs and that then shapes attitudes

• But also → Selective exposure: tendency to seek out info that confirms our beliefs

  • Accept info that supports our pre-existing beliefs, and reject that which does not

Motivated Reasoning

the cognitive process of using reasoning to reach a desired conclusion, rather than using reasoning to find the most accurate conclusion

Who popularized motivated reasoning? What did they say?

Kunda (1990) - we have 2 main goals when processing information

1. Accuracy: want to know truth, regardless of what it is

2. Directional: we want to reach a particular conclusion, seeing things the way we want to see them

In Class Example of Motivated Reasoning

Asked about beliefs/attitudes about the death penalty, then shown 2 different paragraphs with information pro/against it

Attitudes were consistent when people received consistent information, but inconsistent when given contrary evidence.

Shows strong connect between prior beliefs and new ones, but cant tell which comes first

What should happen if we are following accuracy motivations when presented with contrary evidence?

Change your beliefs

What should happen if we are following directional motivations when presented with contrary evidence?

Creates a belief dilemma, do we change? Question about consistency

Did people maintain their beliefs or adapt in the in-class experiment regarding the death penalty?

People did not engage in belief change, only about 5 out of 50. Shows belief stability.

Seen as evidence of motivated reasoning, since they are looking at directional goals instead of believing the evidence.

Done primarily through disconfirmation bias

Arguments for Motivated Reasoning

• Lord et. al: backlash effect → when you see challenging evidence, makes beliefs even stronger

• Kunda: accuracy and direction

• Lodge and Taber: motivated skepticism

• Nelson et, al: attitude change is rare, done through reframing

  • people find other reasons to maintain beliefs, even when shown other evidence

Arguments Against Motivated Reasoning

• Tetlock and Bullock: no way to distinguish between motivational and cognitive explanations, we use Bayesian updating

  • There is a formula that explains how we should respond when it comes to new information, we update beliefs in accordance to prior and new

• Wood: false beliefs can easily be corrected, especially when erroneous

• CoppockL everyone responds to new information more or less the same way, regardless of prior beliefs/attitudes

  • no evidence of backlash

Definition of Values

• Enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence

• General principles of right or wrong that can be applied to many different people, actions or situations

• Consensus ideas - everyone has them but we may not agree on how to center them

Definition of Value System

An enduring organization of beliefs concerning preferable modes of conduct or end-states of existence

What were Rokeach’s contributions to the study of values?

Terminal vs Instrumental Values

What are terminal values?

Desirable end-states of existence; the goals a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime (ie. end states)

Examples:

• self-respect

• salvation

• social recognition

• true friendship

• an exciting life

• a comfortable life

What are instrumental values?

Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one's terminal values (ie. ways of behaving)

Examples:

• ambition

• courage

• helpfulness

• imagination

Schwartz’ Definition of Values

1. are concepts or beliefs
2. pertain to desirable end states or behaviors
3. transcend specific situations
4. guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events
5. are ordered by relative importance

Connect basic motives w/ needs, leads to circular model (certain values are opposed to one another)

What are two examples of values in American political culture?

• Individualism: giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

  • Example: individual liberty, personal responsibility, work ethic

• Equality: a state of affairs in which all people have the same status in certain respects

  • Examples: political equality, equal opportunity, social equality, economic equality

What was Engelhardt’s research contirbution?

Building off of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, applying it to a global scale → divided values into materialistic and post-materialistic

Showed that more developed countries tend to focus on post-materialistic values, while less developed countries focus more on materialistic ones

• this shift occurs as countries continue to develop

Post-materialism

Suggest that concern for quality-of-life occur only after individuals have met their more basic needs for food, water, safety and shelter

• Example: giving people more say in government, protecting freedoms

What are democratic values?

The two most important are…

1. Representation → needs/wants/desires

2. Individual Rights

What is tolerance?

Being willing to give the people you don’t like the same rights as you

What are arguments in the tolerance debate?

• Stouffer: large gap between tolerance as a principle and as a practice

• Prothro and Grigg: tolerance levels rising in the 70's with greater education

  • With greater education comes a greater acceptance of views and understanding

• Sullivan: increase tolerance an illusion

  • Thought that education just makes you more tolerant of certain groups, but not groups to which you particularly dislike

Value Pluralism

Where many values exist alongside each other

Arguments for Value Pluralism

• Schwartz’ model: circular model shows inevitable value conflict, because you can’t have it all

• Tetlock: people develop complex, contingent attitudes across different scenarios

• Feldman and Zaller: ambivalence in values, people don’t have an opinion on many issues like social welfare because it shows difference between 2 opposing values (freedom and equality)

Discussion around Environmentalism

• developing countries don’t have capacity to focus on climate change → more of a terminal value

• Schultz says there are multiple kinds of environmentalists

  • Egoistic: values focused on oneself and self-oriented goals

    • Ex: I may not care a lot about pollution until it starts affecting me directly

  • Altruistic: values indicate concern for other people

    • Ex: Building a dam would displace people and their homes, so I don't like it

  • Biospheric: values include concern for the wellbeing of all living things

    • Ex: climate change is bad because it affects humans, animals and the environment!