R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Alford, John R."

Browsing by Author "Alford, John R."

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A comparative examination of the Reagan and Thatcher administrations' approaches toward reforming the welfare state
(1991) Clark, Adrian Stefan; Alford, John R.
The first part of the thesis evaluates policy change effected toward the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program and the Food Stamp program in the United States during the Reagan years; and the Retirement Pensions program and Social Assistance in the United Kingdom during the Thatcher years (1979-1988). The Reagan administration was largely unsuccessful in attaining its major goals toward reforming OASI. Greater success was forthcoming in its efforts to effect policy change toward the Food Stamp program. Reagan, failed, however, to transfer authority for the welfare function over to the states. Non-incremental policy change was effected toward the Retirement Pensions program during the Thatcher years. A radical redirection in social policy toward the unemployed was also forthcoming. The argument is advanced that the social policies of the two administrations were guided by a determination to reinforce the historical distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor. The second part of the thesis assesses how the attempts of the two administrations to reform the welfare state were constrained by public opinion and the legislative branch of government. The public popularity of OASI severely constricted the reform options available to the Reagan administration. A broad relationship existed between public opinion on nutritional issues and policy output with relationship to the Food Stamp program. The administration's attempts to reform the welfare state were constrained by the complex legislative structure of U.S. government, and by divided partisan control of Congress. Strong British public support for the welfare of the elderly inhibited the government from attempting to cut basic retirement pension benefits. Public opinion exerted a minimal degree of influence on the direction of Social Assistance reform. Thatcher's success in effecting non-incremental reform was facilitated by the structural design of Parliament. Her position was fortified by large cohesive Conservative party majorities in the House of Commons. Policy change in Britain during the Thatcher years is interpreted on a theoretical level through an adversarial model of the policy making process. A consensus model is utilized to facilitate understanding of Reagan's experiences in office.
Anger In Action: The Role of Emotions, Competition, and Threat on Mobilization
(2012-09-05) Phan, Ngoc; Wilson, Rick K.; Alford, John R.; Stein, Robert M.; George, Jennifer M.
Research Question: Anger is believed to be a powerful motivator of group mobilization. The objective of this dissertation is to examine the role of anger in assisting individuals to overcome the collective action problem. Theory: I utilize Intergroup Emotional Theory in order to build and test hypotheses on when and how anger will lead to mobilization. Methods: I test my hypotheses through four experiments. Experiment 1 examines how individual level anger impacts mobilization. In Experiment 2, I implement a test to induce anger towards an out-group. In Experiment 3, I then examine how anger towards an out-group impacts mobilization under the contexts of threat and competition. In Experiment 4, I look at different threatening contexts and how anger towards an out-group, limited information, and discrimination all work together to impact mobilization. Results: In Experiment 1, I found that when an angry subject is asked to take action in a task unrelated to that anger, the subject fails to mobilize. In Experiment 2, I built and tested two experimental manipulations of out-group anger and was successful in inducing anger directed towards an out-group. Having successfully induced out-group anger, Experiment 3 then demonstrated that out-group anger increases mobilization under competition, but not under threat. The mobilizing effects of out-group anger was limited under threat because subjects also felt angry towards their own in-group. Lastly, I reexamine different variations of threat on mobilization. I attempt to reduce increases in in-group anger by limiting information and discriminating against the angry group, but as I stack the deck against the angry group, they responded by mobilizing less. Conclusions: The potential for anger to mobilize may be contingent upon the level of out-group and in-group anger within a group. These findings collectively shed light on how out-group anger can either facilitate action or lead to inaction.
Cortisol and politics: Variance in voting behavior is predicted by baseline cortisol levels
(Elsevier, 2014) French, Jeffrey A.; Smith, Kevin B.; Alford, John R.; Guck, Adam; Birnie, Andrew K.; Hibbing, John R.
Participation in electoral politics is affected by a host of social and demographics variables, but there is growing evidence that biological predispositions may also play a role in behavior related to political involvement. We examined the role of individual variation in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) stress axis parameters in explaining differences in self-reported and actual participation in political activities. Self-reported political activity, religious participation, and verified voting activity in U.S. national elections were collected from 105 participants, who were subsequently exposed to a standardized (nonpolitical) psychosocial stressor. We demonstrated that lower baseline salivary cortisol in the late afternoon was significantly associated with increased actual voting frequency in six national elections, but not with self-reported non-voting political activity. Baseline cortisol predicted significant variation in voting behavior above and beyond variation accounted for by traditional demographic variables (particularly age of participant in our sample). Participation in religious activity was weakly (and negatively) associated with baseline cortisol. Our results suggest that HPA-mediated characteristics of social, cognitive, and emotional processes may exert an influence on a trait as complex as voting behavior, and that cortisol is a better predictor of actual voting behavior, as opposed to self-reported political activity.
Cycling and recycling: The effects of group context and member involvement on social capital
(2001) Ownby, Allison Rinden; Alford, John R.
Social capital---what it is, how it is generated, and what it may or may not do for the larger political system---is the subject of a large and ongoing debate within political science. This dissertation seeks to answer the question: "What is it about group membership that may or may not produce social capital?" Much of the social capital literature alludes to a relationship between group membership and social capital, yet findings are often mixed on the importance of group membership for the production of social capital. Before the relationship between group membership and social capital can be discounted, it is critical to examine whether or not the organizational structure of a group has an impact on social capital. A theory of organizational structure and member involvement on the production of social capital is introduced and suggests that appropriately structured groups provide a context in which social capital can be produced. Appropriately structured groups are groups that promote face-to-face interaction between members and leaders, avenues for member participation in decision-making and the setting of group goals, communication between members and leaders, and member participation in strategies to achieve group goals. It is expected that the level of member participation within the group will mediate the influence of the group organizational structure. Data used to examine the influence of member involvement and general group structure on the production of social capital are from the American National Election Study, 1996 and the American Citizen Participation Study, 1990. Original data collected from a random sample of members of the Texas Bicycle Coalition and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club are used to examine more closely the impact of group structure and member involvement on social capital. Overall, the findings indicate that group structure affects the production of social capital and suggest that future research should focus on examining the organizational structure of a larger number of groups.
Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology
(Cambridge University Press, 2014) Hibbing, John R.; Smith, Kevin B.; Alford, John R.
Disputes between those holding differing political views are ubiquitous and deep-seated, and they often follow common, recognizable lines. The supporters of tradition and stability, sometimes referred to as conservatives, do battle with the supporters of innovation and reform, sometimes referred to as liberals. Understanding the correlates of those distinct political orientations is probably a prerequisite for managing political disputes, which are a source of social conflict that can lead to frustration and even bloodshed. A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence documents a multitude of ways in which liberals and conservatives differ from each other in purviews of life with little direct connection to politics, from tastes in art to desire for closure and from disgust sensitivity to the tendency to pursue new information, but the central theme of the differences is a matter of debate. In this article, we argue that one organizing element of the many differences between liberals and conservatives is the nature of their physiological and psychological responses to features of the environment that are negative. Compared with liberals, conservatives tend to register greater physiological responses to such stimuli and also to devote more psychological resources to them. Operating from this point of departure, we suggest approaches for refining understanding of the broad relationship between political views and response to the negative. We conclude with a discussion of normative implications, stressing that identifying differences across ideological groups is not tantamount to declaring one ideology superior to another.
Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left- Right Political Orientations
(Public Library of Science, 2011) Smith, Kevin B.; Oxley, Douglas; Hibbing, Matthew V.; Alford, John R.; Hibbing, John R.
Disgust has been described as the most primitive and central of emotions. Thus, it is not surprising that it shapes behaviors in a variety of organisms and in a variety of contexts—including homo sapien politics. People who believe they would be bothered by a range of hypothetical disgusting situations display an increased likelihood of displaying right-of-center rather than left-of-center political orientations. Given its primal nature and essential value in avoiding pathogens disgust likely has an effect even without registering in conscious beliefs. In this article, we demonstrate that individuals with marked involuntary physiological responses to disgusting images, such as of a man eating a large mouthful of writhing worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative and, especially, to oppose gay marriage than are individuals with more muted physiological responses to the same images. This relationship holds even when controlling for the degree to which respondents believe themselves to be disgust sensitive and suggests that people’s physiological predispositions help to shape their political orientations.
Electoral district structure and political behavior
(2001) Engstrom, Richard Neal; Alford, John R.
Assertions of the value of "traditional districting principles" are tested using survey data and contextual variables describing Congressional districts' geographic characteristics. Electoral district geography is found to have systematic relationships with citizen political behavior. District conformity to media market boundaries is found to affect citizen attentiveness to political campaigns as well as voter turnout. Some evidence is found to support the argument that district compactness matters for political behavior as well. These findings demonstrate that district shape matters in the political lives of citizens, and provides a better understanding of the particular implications district characteristics have for voters.
Mobilizing collective identity: Frames & rational individuals
(2009) Aroopala, Christy Annie; Druckman, James N.; Alford, John R.
Who wins and loses in politics often depends on the relative strengths of competing groups. To increase their strengths and prevalence, groups often engage in mobilization efforts. How and when these attempts work is the topic of my dissertation. I take a micro approach by exploring the specific ways that varying rhetorical strategies enhance the likelihood of successful mobilization. Specifically, I combine rational choice and psychological theories to generate hypotheses concerning the role of thresholds (rules that determine how far the group is from its goal), the stakes involved in the decision, and source credibility in moderating the success of frames in increasing group participation. I then test these predictions in a series of three experiments---a voting game laboratory experiment, a mobilization survey-experiment, and a public goods laboratory experiment. I find evidence that group-based mobilization is most successful when moderators reinforce the mobilization messages, suggesting that identity-based politics have a greater underlying rational (i.e., instrumental) component than previously thought. The findings of this project have significant implications for the role of mobilization and identity in politics.
Molecular Genetics and the Development of Reflexive Visual Attention
(2013-08-09) Lundwall, Rebecca; Dannemiller, James L.; Oswald, Frederick L.; Alford, John R.; Sereno, Anne B
This study elucidates genetic influences on the development of reflexive attention. Reflexive attention refers to processes that rapidly shift attention, typically from one location in space to another (such as to an object that appears suddenly or moves). Our previous work has shown that normal adults differ by genotype on a reflexive attention task (Lundwall, Guo & Dannemiller, 2012). The current study attempts to show that normal children show similar genotypic differences. Differences in reflexive attention by genotype are not certain because gene expression and experience differ in children compared to adults. However, understanding association by genotype could be important to the early identification and treatment of attention-related disorders commonly diagnosed in childhood (e.g., attention deficit disorder; ADHD). Here I follow-up with children (aged nine -16 years; N = 332) who participated as infants in visual attention studies (see Dannemiller, 2004). I investigate genetic associations with reflexive attention measures at both time points as well as associations with stress, health, and academic performance. The genetic markers (i.e., APOE, BDNF, CHRNA4, COMT, DRD4, HTR4, IGF2, MAOA, SLC5A7, SLC6A3, and SNAP25) are related to brain development and/or to the availability of neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, dopamine, or serotonin. One of the more interesting findings is that markers on CHRNA4, DRD4, IGF2, and MAOA predict the trajectory of the development of reflexive attention from infancy to childhood. Another interesting finding is that, unlike with our previous study with adults where cost dim was most sensitive to individual differences, with this child sample cost bright (the response time cost of a single bright, contralateral pre-cue) was associated with markers on BDNF, MAOA, and SNAP25. These genes are associated with brain growth, neurotransmitters such as dopamine, and neurotransmitter release into the synapse, respectively. A specific marker (rs6323) on MAOA was associated with seven child attention-task outcomes. From these and related results, I conclude that individual differences in reflexive attention and its development are related to several genetic markers including dopaminergic genes (implicated in disorders of attention such as ADHD).
Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology
(Elsevier, 2014) Ahn, Woo-Young; Kishida, Kenneth T.; Gu, Xiaosi; Lohrenz, Terry; Harvey, Ann; Alford, John R.; Smith, Kevin B.; Yaffe, Gideon; Hibbing, John R.; Dayan, Peter; Montague, P. Read
Political ideologies summarize dimensions of life that define how a person organizes their public and privateﾠbehavior, including their attitudes associated with sex, family, education, and personal autonomy [1ﾠandﾠ2]. Despite the abstract nature of such sensibilities, fundamental features of political ideology have been found toﾠbe deeply connected to basic biological mechanisms [3, 4, 5, 6ﾠandﾠ7] that may serve to defend against environmental challenges like contamination and physical threat [8, 9, 10, 11ﾠandﾠ12]. These results invite the provocative claim that neural responses to nonpolitical stimuli (like contaminated foodﾠor physical threats) should be highly predictive ofﾠabstract political opinions (like attitudes toward gun control and abortion) [13]. We applied a machine-learningﾠmethod to fMRI data to test the hypotheses that brain responses to emotionally evocative images predict individual scores on a standard political ideology assay. Disgusting images, especially those related to animal-reminder disgust (e.g., mutilated body), generate neural responses that are highly predictive of political orientation even though these neural predictors do not agree with participants' conscious rating of the stimuli. Images from other affective categories do not support such predictions. Remarkably, brain responses to a single disgusting stimulus were sufficient to make accurate predictions about an individual subjectﾒs political ideology. These results provide strong support for the idea that fundamental neural processing differences that emerge under the challenge of emotionally evocative stimuli may serve to structure political beliefs in ways formerly unappreciated.
Political attitudes and activities of hard-money investors: Manifestations of the religious right
(1990) Watson, Patrick Wayne; Alford, John R.
This thesis surveys subscribers to an investment newsletter to determine whether they comprise an interest group. Hypothetically, staunch conservatives and "New Christian Right" members were expected. The data provides limited support. Respondents are generally conservative with a significant number of libertarians. Committed Christian respondents are influenced by religion on social issues like abortion, but not on other issues like gun control. Respondents feel closer to conservative groups than liberal groups. They rely for their information on conservative publications, and watch network news programs several times a week. Conservatives have high approval of Reagan, but libertarians do not. Respondents are politically more active than the general population, but prefer private activity such as donations to public activity such as campaign work. There may be two distinct groups: conservative Christians and secular libertarians.
Subnational contextual influences on political trust
(2002) Ulbig, Stacy Gwenn; Alford, John R.
The primary objective of this research is to address a basic question: What types of governmental structures serve to enhance the public's trust in government? It develops and tests a theory linking local political characteristics to citizen attitudes toward government. These relationships are analyzed by (1) collecting original survey data on citizen attitudes toward local governments and information on local political characteristics, and (2) using multi-level analytical techniques to investigate how the context created by various governmental structures and political realities impacts the political attitudes of residents. The research presented here unites much of the political, social, and psychological research on political trust by presenting a model of the attitude based on individual-level judgments about the policies, processes, and people of local government as well as the political structures and realities that surround these individuals. This study also provides insight into how contextual variables can contribute to an understanding of individual-level attitudes by showing how a person's political surroundings can operate to shape their feelings of trust in the government.
The effect of increased incumbency margins upon partisanship in the Congress
(1989) Young, Harriet Hopkins; Alford, John R.
Beginning with work by Robert Erickson in the early 1970's, there has been a substantial amount of research into the phenomenon known as incumbency advantage. There has also been a significant growth in the analysis of Congress based upon the rational choice model, using the desire for reelection as the basis for modelling congressional behavior. As always, there is an ongoing debate about the value of congressional output. To date, there has been no attempt to examine the impact of the growth of incumbency advantage upon congressional behavior. This paper attempts to measure the effects of incumbency, operationalized as tenure and winning margins, upon congressional behavior as reflected by voting scores complied by CQ over the post war period. If the rational choice model is correct, we expect to find that increased safety has led to less presidential support and less party unity. The mass of evidence presented here reveals no such pattern associated with increased margins or increased tenure.
The federal face of democratic representation: The effects of responsibility attribution on cross-level voting behavior and government responsiveness in the United States
(2003) Arceneaux, Kevin Timothy; Alford, John R.
Federalism is designed to enhance democratic representation because it gives citizens the opportunity to shape policymaking at multiple levels of government. This design feature is premised on the assumption that individuals make distinctions in the responsibilities that pertain to different levels of government and link these distinctions in a rational way to their voting decisions. Citizens are expected to sanction politicians for those policy decisions over which their level of government has responsibility. This dissertation draws on work in both political and social psychology to develop a theoretical framework consistent with the federalist view of democratic representation. Existing and original survey data drawn from U.S. samples were employed to test the hypotheses derived from this model. These data corroborate the federalist view, suggesting that federalism shapes voting behavior in the United States in expected ways. Further evidence also demonstrates that how policy responsibilities are divided among levels of government is responsive to changes in public opinion. All together, these findings buttress the claim that federalism enhances democratic representation.
The reality of realignment in the post World War II South
(1988) Thielemann, Gregory S.; Alford, John R.
In recent years, much has been written about the political change that is sweeping the South. This is unusual in that the history of the region is one of stability rather than change. Investigations into the political shifts have tended to center around shifts in partisan electoral preferences. In some cases, scholars even suggest that the South is undergoing a process of partisan realignment. This thesis dissents from that opinion. The historical/cultural explanations of Southern politics describe a society and political structure that was, and is dominated by the individual. Given the history of this one-party region, the competition which emerged was one of factionalism dominated by individuals. Even recent Republican gains reflect the power of individuals in Southern elections. The thesis explores change at three levels. Initially, it analyzes change in partisanship. While the data indicate that survey respondents are less likely to claim loyalty to the Democrats, their actual voting patterns do not show any commitment to the G.O.P. This factor leaves partisan identification suspect as a predictor of change. The thesis follows with an analysis of inter-party competition by looking at the effects of incumbency and presidential coattails, and intra-party competition where Democrats have a long history of primary competition that Republicans do not share. The final portion of the thesis links these electoral shifts to institutions by looking at the effects of change on conservative coalition support. In this regard the region's conservatism is shown to be bi-partisan. The conclusion that can be drawn from this analysis is that political change is overstated in the South and not linked to the theory of partisan realignment.
What Makes Politics Interesting?: How Political Contexts Shape Political Interest Across the World
(2015-04-16) Lee, Seonghui; Stevenson, Randolph T.; Alford, John R.; Martin, Lanny W.; Oswald, Fredrick L.
Decades of behavior research have shown that political interest is the most important predictor of political knowledge and citizen participation. Political interest and knowledge, in turn, are at the core of democratic citizenship and the quality of representative democracy. An under-appreciated fact about political interest, however, is that typical levels of political interest (and thus political knowledge) vary dramatically across countries. Current theories of political interest and knowledge, however, explain little about why such differences occur and persist. This dissertation attempts to fill that void by proposing a novel theoretical framework for why individuals do or do not become interested in politics. This new theory leads directly to hypotheses about how typical levels of political interest can vary across different political contexts. The individual level theory draws on appraisal models of interest in psychology. These models show that appraising an event or a message as "comprehensible" (or, more generally, as being able to cope with it) is one of several necessary conditions for individuals to be interested in the event or message (e.g., Silvia 2006). Drawing on a large body of work in political psychology which highlights the critical role heuristics play in helping individuals comprehend politics, I extend the appraisal model of interest to include a role for heuristics in enhancing comprehensibility and therefore interest. Adding heuristics to the appraisal model of interest is the key to understanding cross-national variation in typical levels of political interest. Specifically, I argue that a specific set of simplifying heuristics that work to make politics more "comprehensible" is the main driver of the temporal and cross-national differences in political interest. The micro-foundations of the argument are examined by implementing a unique experimental design that manipulates the availability of heuristics for different groups. The experimental results support the proposed mechanism, demonstrating that individuals in contexts where heuristics are available and useful are more interested in experimental tasks. To validate the main argument for the cross-national differences in political interest, I introduce a set of measurements tapping into the political contexts associated with the availability and usefulness of common political heuristics, and test the argument using a comprehensive dataset combining a large pool of cross-national surveys and various contextual measures.

Browsing by Author "Alford, John R."

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