Pub Date : 2024-04-08DOI: 10.1177/00027642241242930
Jing Song, Weiwen Lai, Eric Fong
Female domestic workers often take on multiple roles in different settings, such as that of mothers and migrants. This study focuses on women’s diverse trajectories in timing motherhood and migration from a temporal perspective. Despite the continuities between their paid work for their employers and unpaid care for their own families, both of which are highly feminized, migrant women often face tensions and conflicts between the two; it is difficult to be a good worker and a good mother at the same time. Drawing on the Survey of Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, this study provides a quantitative picture of how some women decide to move before becoming mothers and some afterward, as well as their different long-term mobility tendencies. The findings lend support to a selectivity process that highly educated women are more likely to be non-mother migrants; they are more likely to move at a younger age and when they are unmarried. However, over time, migrants who were mothers at the time of their first migration are more likely to conduct multiple moves. Such mixed findings suggest that women’s migration is interrelated with motherhood in complex ways, which may reflect the need of repeated migration by mothers on the one hand, and the gender beliefs that continue to regard migrant women as neglecting their families and deviating from feminine domesticity on the other.
{"title":"Motherhood and Women’s Migration: Evidence from Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong","authors":"Jing Song, Weiwen Lai, Eric Fong","doi":"10.1177/00027642241242930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241242930","url":null,"abstract":"Female domestic workers often take on multiple roles in different settings, such as that of mothers and migrants. This study focuses on women’s diverse trajectories in timing motherhood and migration from a temporal perspective. Despite the continuities between their paid work for their employers and unpaid care for their own families, both of which are highly feminized, migrant women often face tensions and conflicts between the two; it is difficult to be a good worker and a good mother at the same time. Drawing on the Survey of Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, this study provides a quantitative picture of how some women decide to move before becoming mothers and some afterward, as well as their different long-term mobility tendencies. The findings lend support to a selectivity process that highly educated women are more likely to be non-mother migrants; they are more likely to move at a younger age and when they are unmarried. However, over time, migrants who were mothers at the time of their first migration are more likely to conduct multiple moves. Such mixed findings suggest that women’s migration is interrelated with motherhood in complex ways, which may reflect the need of repeated migration by mothers on the one hand, and the gender beliefs that continue to regard migrant women as neglecting their families and deviating from feminine domesticity on the other.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140731675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1177/00027642241240362
Koen Abts, Julius Maximilian Rogenhofer
Populist attitudes are frequently tied to a specific social position, namely the constituent’s status as a “loser of globalization.” Adding nuance to this explanatory framework, we investigate whether and how resentment mediates between social positions and populist attitudes. We distinguish three constitutive components of resentment—status insecurity, relative deprivation, and powerlessness—and analyze to what extent these sentiments explain the prevalence of two key populist attitudes: anti-elitism and demands for popular sovereignty. Using survey data from the Belgian National Election Study 2014, we show that although both populist attitudes are more likely among individuals of low socioeconomic status, this effect is mediated by a sense of group relative deprivation (anti-elitism and popular sovereignty) and feelings of powerlessness (anti-elitism). The effect of individual-level status insecurities on populist attitudes is, however, not significant. These results suggest that people do not simply adhere to antagonistic and people-centric views about politics because they experience economic precariousness; they embrace populist attitudes if their vulnerability is perceived in terms of a threatened sense of group position and understood as the outcome of an unjust society, wherein they feel powerless to alter their circumstances.
{"title":"Three-Pronged Resentment: How Status Insecurity, Relative Deprivation, and Powerlessness Mediate Between Social Positions and Populist Attitudes","authors":"Koen Abts, Julius Maximilian Rogenhofer","doi":"10.1177/00027642241240362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241240362","url":null,"abstract":"Populist attitudes are frequently tied to a specific social position, namely the constituent’s status as a “loser of globalization.” Adding nuance to this explanatory framework, we investigate whether and how resentment mediates between social positions and populist attitudes. We distinguish three constitutive components of resentment—status insecurity, relative deprivation, and powerlessness—and analyze to what extent these sentiments explain the prevalence of two key populist attitudes: anti-elitism and demands for popular sovereignty. Using survey data from the Belgian National Election Study 2014, we show that although both populist attitudes are more likely among individuals of low socioeconomic status, this effect is mediated by a sense of group relative deprivation (anti-elitism and popular sovereignty) and feelings of powerlessness (anti-elitism). The effect of individual-level status insecurities on populist attitudes is, however, not significant. These results suggest that people do not simply adhere to antagonistic and people-centric views about politics because they experience economic precariousness; they embrace populist attitudes if their vulnerability is perceived in terms of a threatened sense of group position and understood as the outcome of an unjust society, wherein they feel powerless to alter their circumstances.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1177/00027642241242036
Rosa Sanchez Salgado, Linda Bos
Although it is well acknowledged that moral foundations have an emotional component, little is known about the relation between moral foundations and emotions in current political and public debates. The analysis of this relation is crucial to better understand causal pathways from affect and emotion to climate change action and behavior. Employing Emotion Discourse Analysis, this study analyzes appeals to moral foundations in European Parliament (EP) plenary debates on the topic of climate change, and their relation to emotions between 1994 and 2022. We show that the relation between moral foundations and emotions depends on the narratives put forward by policymakers from different political groups. After linking narratives, moral foundations and emotions, we hypothesize how the identified combinations affect political action. We show that narratives promoting action-oriented and effective appeals to emotions, which are key in advancing environmental protection, are not the most prominent in EP debates.
{"title":"A Passion for Virtue? Appeals to Morality and Emotions in European Parliament Climate Change Debates","authors":"Rosa Sanchez Salgado, Linda Bos","doi":"10.1177/00027642241242036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241242036","url":null,"abstract":"Although it is well acknowledged that moral foundations have an emotional component, little is known about the relation between moral foundations and emotions in current political and public debates. The analysis of this relation is crucial to better understand causal pathways from affect and emotion to climate change action and behavior. Employing Emotion Discourse Analysis, this study analyzes appeals to moral foundations in European Parliament (EP) plenary debates on the topic of climate change, and their relation to emotions between 1994 and 2022. We show that the relation between moral foundations and emotions depends on the narratives put forward by policymakers from different political groups. After linking narratives, moral foundations and emotions, we hypothesize how the identified combinations affect political action. We show that narratives promoting action-oriented and effective appeals to emotions, which are key in advancing environmental protection, are not the most prominent in EP debates.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1177/00027642241242056
Alessandro Nai, Jürgen Maier
We investigate the antecedents of affective polarization in the American public, and focus specifically on the driving role of exposure to darker forms of campaign communication (negativity, incivility, populist rhetoric) and the intervening role of individual populist attitudes. Experimental evidence was gathered among a sample of US respondents (MTurk, N = 1,081); respondents were randomly exposed to a campaign message from a fictive candidate framed either positively or negatively, and afterwards asked to express their attitudes towards Democrats and Republicans. Results show that exposure to harsher forms of campaign negativity (character attacks associated with political incivility and populist messages) drives affective polarization upwards when compared to exposure to positive messages. We also show both a direct and moderating effect of populist attitudes: populist individuals are more likely to “like” negative campaign messages (they find them more amusing and fairer) and report higher levels of affective polarization. Furthermore, exposure to negative messages is associated with greater affective polarization particularly among respondents high in populist attitudes.
{"title":"Polarized Populists: Dark Campaigns, Affective Polarization, and the Moderating Role of Populist Attitudes","authors":"Alessandro Nai, Jürgen Maier","doi":"10.1177/00027642241242056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241242056","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate the antecedents of affective polarization in the American public, and focus specifically on the driving role of exposure to darker forms of campaign communication (negativity, incivility, populist rhetoric) and the intervening role of individual populist attitudes. Experimental evidence was gathered among a sample of US respondents (MTurk, N = 1,081); respondents were randomly exposed to a campaign message from a fictive candidate framed either positively or negatively, and afterwards asked to express their attitudes towards Democrats and Republicans. Results show that exposure to harsher forms of campaign negativity (character attacks associated with political incivility and populist messages) drives affective polarization upwards when compared to exposure to positive messages. We also show both a direct and moderating effect of populist attitudes: populist individuals are more likely to “like” negative campaign messages (they find them more amusing and fairer) and report higher levels of affective polarization. Furthermore, exposure to negative messages is associated with greater affective polarization particularly among respondents high in populist attitudes.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1177/00027642241242744
Sohoon Yi
Marriages between South Korean men and women from less affluent Asian countries have been popular since the 1990s, and commercial international marriage brokers have played an important role in the trend. This article argues that the laws and regulations governing marriage brokers, such as Marriage Brokers Business Management Act (MBBMA) and consumer protection mechanisms, have reinforced the rights of citizen-husbands and legitimized claims from the men’s movement. As a result, the state’s regulation of commercial matchmaking endorses a form of commodified intimacy and protects the rights of male client-cum-“head of the family,” despite the consequences of commodifying the personhood of migrant women and legitimizing the violence of denying their personal autonomy. Data include public documents and policies from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Korea Institute for Healthy Family, Korea Consumer Agency, Fair Trade Commission, and MBBMA. Analysis of these public texts reveals the legal and policy language that sanitizes and disguises unequal gender roles and discrimination against foreigners.
{"title":"Legitimate Transaction? Regulating Commercial International Marriage Brokers in South Korea","authors":"Sohoon Yi","doi":"10.1177/00027642241242744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241242744","url":null,"abstract":"Marriages between South Korean men and women from less affluent Asian countries have been popular since the 1990s, and commercial international marriage brokers have played an important role in the trend. This article argues that the laws and regulations governing marriage brokers, such as Marriage Brokers Business Management Act (MBBMA) and consumer protection mechanisms, have reinforced the rights of citizen-husbands and legitimized claims from the men’s movement. As a result, the state’s regulation of commercial matchmaking endorses a form of commodified intimacy and protects the rights of male client-cum-“head of the family,” despite the consequences of commodifying the personhood of migrant women and legitimizing the violence of denying their personal autonomy. Data include public documents and policies from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Korea Institute for Healthy Family, Korea Consumer Agency, Fair Trade Commission, and MBBMA. Analysis of these public texts reveals the legal and policy language that sanitizes and disguises unequal gender roles and discrimination against foreigners.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-03DOI: 10.1177/00027642241237745
Cliff Cheng
This article begins to provide social scientists new to studying anti-Asian Pacific Islander Desai American (APIDA)+ hate with some basic background. What to call, and the implications of the name of the group being studied are discussed. A definition of hate is discussed. A brief summary of COVID-19 anti-APIDA+ hate is provided. We will then discuss how the overemphasis on then U.S. President Donald Trump’s role, while central, has ignored the actual socio-historical facts. The importance of using journalism in studying current cases and trends of hate is discussed. The possible negative consequences for researchers of studying hate are discussed in the context of the current political divisiveness in the U.S. Resources for studying anti-APIDA+ hate and discrimination are provided. 20 key dates pertaining to anti-APIDA+ hate and discrimination are provided.
{"title":"Thoughts on Studying Anti-Asian Pacific Islander Desai American+ Hate Since COVID-19","authors":"Cliff Cheng","doi":"10.1177/00027642241237745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241237745","url":null,"abstract":"This article begins to provide social scientists new to studying anti-Asian Pacific Islander Desai American (APIDA)+ hate with some basic background. What to call, and the implications of the name of the group being studied are discussed. A definition of hate is discussed. A brief summary of COVID-19 anti-APIDA+ hate is provided. We will then discuss how the overemphasis on then U.S. President Donald Trump’s role, while central, has ignored the actual socio-historical facts. The importance of using journalism in studying current cases and trends of hate is discussed. The possible negative consequences for researchers of studying hate are discussed in the context of the current political divisiveness in the U.S. Resources for studying anti-APIDA+ hate and discrimination are provided. 20 key dates pertaining to anti-APIDA+ hate and discrimination are provided.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-02DOI: 10.1177/00027642241240354
Gabriella Szabó, Sergei A. Samoilenko
This special issue seeks to address this gap by presenting a comprehensive collection of both theoretical and practical insights into moral language, argumentation, and evaluations within politicized environments. Our overarching objective encompasses three main facets. We investigate how studies in communication, media, and behavioral sciences can contribute to the understanding of morality. The special issue also evaluates the ways in which interdisciplinary approaches shed light on the evolving dynamics of moral politics, including the formation of in-group and out-group identities. Finally, the contributions scrutinize the extent to which contemporary understandings of public discourse and socio-political tensions enrich discourse on morality. Rather than merely presenting isolated instances of public moralization and its consequences, this special issue initiates a timely and much-needed scholarly dialog concerning the public discourse and sentiments surrounding moral issues.
{"title":"Introduction to Special Issue “Morality in Political and Public Debates. What is Beyond Moral Framing?”","authors":"Gabriella Szabó, Sergei A. Samoilenko","doi":"10.1177/00027642241240354","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241240354","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue seeks to address this gap by presenting a comprehensive collection of both theoretical and practical insights into moral language, argumentation, and evaluations within politicized environments. Our overarching objective encompasses three main facets. We investigate how studies in communication, media, and behavioral sciences can contribute to the understanding of morality. The special issue also evaluates the ways in which interdisciplinary approaches shed light on the evolving dynamics of moral politics, including the formation of in-group and out-group identities. Finally, the contributions scrutinize the extent to which contemporary understandings of public discourse and socio-political tensions enrich discourse on morality. Rather than merely presenting isolated instances of public moralization and its consequences, this special issue initiates a timely and much-needed scholarly dialog concerning the public discourse and sentiments surrounding moral issues.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although research on populism has gained traction as an established field of inquiry, its affective underpinnings remain a puzzle. A relatively underexplored area of study, now garnering attention, is the intricate relationship between populism and emotions. This Triple Special Issue focuses on the demand side of populist politics, delving into populist attitudes and the role emotions play in their activation. Articles in this collection address three overarching research questions, which we explore in this Introduction: What are the primary emotional drivers of populist attitudes? Which emotions are evoked in audiences by populist communication and framing? What is the significance of exploring complex emotions and moving beyond “thin ideology” in the study of emotions and populism? In this Introduction, we assess the current state of the art and highlight the contributions of our collection to ongoing theoretical and empirical debates.
{"title":"Introduction to the Triple Special Issue “The Emotional Side of Populist Support: Key Affective Mechanisms at Test”","authors":"Monika Verbalyte, Donatella Bonansinga, Tereza Capelos","doi":"10.1177/00027642241240360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241240360","url":null,"abstract":"Although research on populism has gained traction as an established field of inquiry, its affective underpinnings remain a puzzle. A relatively underexplored area of study, now garnering attention, is the intricate relationship between populism and emotions. This Triple Special Issue focuses on the demand side of populist politics, delving into populist attitudes and the role emotions play in their activation. Articles in this collection address three overarching research questions, which we explore in this Introduction: What are the primary emotional drivers of populist attitudes? Which emotions are evoked in audiences by populist communication and framing? What is the significance of exploring complex emotions and moving beyond “thin ideology” in the study of emotions and populism? In this Introduction, we assess the current state of the art and highlight the contributions of our collection to ongoing theoretical and empirical debates.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-02DOI: 10.1177/00027642241242749
Arianne M. Gaetano
In contemporary China, social mobility creates an ethical conundrum for single women, who wish to marry without compromising their modern ambitions and filial intentions. Both women and men in China’s largest cities have been postponing marriage in recent decades, increasing the percentage of the never-married population. Failure to marry at the proper time and in the right way violates cultural standards for moral personhood and thus is negatively sanctioned by society. Moreover, women bear greater pressure to marry, and in a timely fashion, than do men. Their marriage prospects decrease as their age and status increase; highly educated single women especially have been stigmatized as “leftover” or unmarriageable. Simultaneously, their educational and professional achievements correspond to refined aspirations for their future, along with resources to delay marriage until they meet a soulmate who fulfills their expectations. Interviews with highly educated single women in Shanghai demonstrate how they contended with the gender contradictions of social mobility. Remaining single by chance or by choice incited societal scrutiny, parental pressure, and personal anguish, but also prompted critical reflection on unequal marriage and gender norms, and sparked shifts in subjectivity. Paradoxically, social mobility reduced single women’s marital prospects yet accorded them the means to envision and forge alternative life paths that challenge patriarchal gender prescriptions.
{"title":"Social Mobility and Single Women’s Marriage Dilemma in Urban China","authors":"Arianne M. Gaetano","doi":"10.1177/00027642241242749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241242749","url":null,"abstract":"In contemporary China, social mobility creates an ethical conundrum for single women, who wish to marry without compromising their modern ambitions and filial intentions. Both women and men in China’s largest cities have been postponing marriage in recent decades, increasing the percentage of the never-married population. Failure to marry at the proper time and in the right way violates cultural standards for moral personhood and thus is negatively sanctioned by society. Moreover, women bear greater pressure to marry, and in a timely fashion, than do men. Their marriage prospects decrease as their age and status increase; highly educated single women especially have been stigmatized as “leftover” or unmarriageable. Simultaneously, their educational and professional achievements correspond to refined aspirations for their future, along with resources to delay marriage until they meet a soulmate who fulfills their expectations. Interviews with highly educated single women in Shanghai demonstrate how they contended with the gender contradictions of social mobility. Remaining single by chance or by choice incited societal scrutiny, parental pressure, and personal anguish, but also prompted critical reflection on unequal marriage and gender norms, and sparked shifts in subjectivity. Paradoxically, social mobility reduced single women’s marital prospects yet accorded them the means to envision and forge alternative life paths that challenge patriarchal gender prescriptions.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140753848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-02DOI: 10.1177/00027642241240335
Franz Reiter, Jörg Matthes
Dirty campaigning, which is understood as actions between elite politicians that violate social norms and democratic principles, is becoming an increasingly relevant phenomenon across the globe. Despite this development, we know little about which forms constitute dirty campaigning, how citizens perceive dirty campaigning, and how perceived dirty campaigning is associated with affective responses and political trust. We argue that the techniques and actions that constitute dirty campaigning go beyond uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques, as dirty campaigning also involves disinformation campaigning. Using data from a two-wave panel study ( N = 524) during the 2020 Viennese state election campaign, we examined the perceived structure of the dirty campaigning construct using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We show that perceived dirty campaigning forms a hierarchical construct with three latent variables. Furthermore, we tested the associations of perceived dirty campaigning with negative emotions toward campaigns as well as outcomes related to political trust. Using structural equation modeling with longitudinal measurement invariance and controlling for autoregressive associations, we found that perceived dirty campaigning increases anger, frustration, and disgust toward campaigns, as well as increases distrust in politicians over time. We also observed that frustration toward campaigns decreases trust in democracy and that disgust toward campaigns increases distrust in politicians over time. We contribute to previous research by developing a framework for investigating perceived dirty campaigning as a hierarchical construct and demonstrating how perceived dirty campaigning can impair democratic outcomes.
{"title":"On the Immoral Campaign Trail: Conceptualization, Underlying Affective Processes, and Democratic Outcomes of Perceived Dirty Campaigning","authors":"Franz Reiter, Jörg Matthes","doi":"10.1177/00027642241240335","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241240335","url":null,"abstract":"Dirty campaigning, which is understood as actions between elite politicians that violate social norms and democratic principles, is becoming an increasingly relevant phenomenon across the globe. Despite this development, we know little about which forms constitute dirty campaigning, how citizens perceive dirty campaigning, and how perceived dirty campaigning is associated with affective responses and political trust. We argue that the techniques and actions that constitute dirty campaigning go beyond uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques, as dirty campaigning also involves disinformation campaigning. Using data from a two-wave panel study ( N = 524) during the 2020 Viennese state election campaign, we examined the perceived structure of the dirty campaigning construct using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We show that perceived dirty campaigning forms a hierarchical construct with three latent variables. Furthermore, we tested the associations of perceived dirty campaigning with negative emotions toward campaigns as well as outcomes related to political trust. Using structural equation modeling with longitudinal measurement invariance and controlling for autoregressive associations, we found that perceived dirty campaigning increases anger, frustration, and disgust toward campaigns, as well as increases distrust in politicians over time. We also observed that frustration toward campaigns decreases trust in democracy and that disgust toward campaigns increases distrust in politicians over time. We contribute to previous research by developing a framework for investigating perceived dirty campaigning as a hierarchical construct and demonstrating how perceived dirty campaigning can impair democratic outcomes.","PeriodicalId":48360,"journal":{"name":"American Behavioral Scientist","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140568864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}