Small Grant for Exploratory Research: Americans Respond to Hurricane Katrina

用于探索性研究的小额赠款：美国人应对卡特里娜飓风

• 批准号: 0555068
• 负责人: Leonie Huddy
• 金额: $ 6.35万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Stony Brook
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-11-01 至 2006-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0555068&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Small; Grant; Exploratory; Research; Americans

Objectives and Intellectual Merit: This study examines the political consequences of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. With estimates of disaster relief and rebuilding costs mounting to over $200 billion, only strong and sustained public support for disaster victims and the government will provide the necessary political capital to ensure funds needed for the restoration effort. However, in the aftermath of the hurricane, Americans report diminished trust in government, especially in the ability of government to deal with natural disasters and possible future terrorism. And there is increasing debate about the best way for the government to pay for reconstruction efforts. Ultimately, Katrina's long-term political consequences will depend to a large degree on the underpinnings of public reactions to the disaster and its victims, views which are currently far from uniform. Some Americans continue to trust the government while others do not. Some wish to see foreign and domestic spending reduced while others want to postpone tax cuts. Some view race and class as defining factors in the human and social disaster in New Orleans, others reject such reasoning. The investigators focus specifically on Americans' beliefs about race as a possible defining factor in understanding public reactions to the government's obligation to disaster victims and its performance in handling relief efforts. A great deal of research has shown that divergent beliefs about race and the origins of racial inequities are a powerful source of division among Americans concerning government social welfare policy, anti-poverty programs, and an array of government assistance programs very generally. News media coverage of the Katrina disaster has made clear that poor, African-Americans dominated the ranks of those initially left behind in New Orleans. To more fully assess the possibly divisive role of racial attitudes in conditioning responses to government relief efforts in response to Katrina, the researchers extend an ongoing NSF-funded research project into Americans' racial attitudes. Specifically, they re-interview respondents included in the American Racial Opinion Survey (AROS). The survey is based on a national telephone sample conducted initially in late 2003 and early 2004, funded by the National Science Foundation (SES-030318800). The first wave of the interview was conducted with 1,583 individuals. They then attempted re-interviews with all whites in the study (N=1,229) in early 2004 (February till June), and obtained completed interviews with 868 non-Hispanic, non-Asian whites. The second wave interview focused exclusively on whites in order to obtain very detailed assessment of their racial attitudes. The two interviews provide a detailed understanding of the respondents' ideological values, views of government, and, most importantly, a number of measures of their racial attitudes and beliefs. In the new interviews they will focus on responses to the Katrina disaster: attitudes toward the victims, assessments of the government's performance, and support for policies to assist the victims and rebuild New Orleans. The research design makes possible a more subtle exploration of the political effects of racial attitudes than in the typical cross-sectional public opinion survey. As a consequence, the researchers are well positioned to assess both overt and more subtle political effects of racial attitudes in accounting for American responses to the disaster. Broader Impact: From a broader perspective, this research will extend policy makers' understanding of how the public responds to disasters and government efforts to deal with such events. The study will also provide evidence on the extent to which victims' race and class shapes public support for government efforts to respond to various kinds of disasters. Efforts to rebuild New Orleans and assist its residents may be seriously undermined by any negative reactions to the hurricane's predominantly poor and black victims. Views of the hurricane's victims may also affect the degree to which trust in government has been undermined by the relief effort in New Orleans. A number of polls have reported some mistrust in government's future ability to handle disasters in the aftermath of the hurricane. The extent to which any given disaster undermines faith in government may also depend on perceptions of the class and racial background of affected citizens.

目标和知识价值：本研究探讨卡特里娜飓风灾难的政治后果。据估计，救灾和重建费用将超过2000亿美元，只有对灾民和政府提供强有力和持续的公共支持，才能提供必要的政治资本，以确保恢复工作所需的资金。然而，飓风过后，美国人对政府的信任度下降，特别是对政府应对自然灾害和未来可能发生的恐怖主义的能力。关于政府为重建工作提供资金的最佳方式的争论越来越多。最终，卡特里娜飓风的长期政治后果将在很大程度上取决于公众对这场灾难及其受害者的反应的基础，目前的观点远非统一。一些美国人继续信任政府，而另一些人则不信任。一些人希望看到国内外支出减少，而另一些人则希望推迟减税。一些人认为种族和阶级是新奥尔良人类和社会灾难的决定性因素，其他人则拒绝这种推理。调查人员特别关注美国人对种族的信念，这可能是理解公众对政府对灾民的义务及其在处理救灾工作中的表现的反应的一个决定性因素。大量的研究表明，关于种族和种族不平等的起源的不同信念是美国人在政府社会福利政策、反贫困计划和一系列政府援助计划方面产生分歧的一个强大来源。新闻媒体对卡特里娜飓风灾难的报道清楚地表明，贫穷的非洲裔美国人在最初留在新奥尔良的人中占主导地位。为了更全面地评估种族态度在应对卡特里娜飓风时对政府救援工作的反应中可能起的分裂作用，研究人员将一个正在进行的NSF资助的研究项目扩展到美国人的种族态度。具体来说，他们重新采访了美国种族舆论调查（AROS）中的受访者。这项调查是基于2003年底和2004年初进行的全国电话抽样调查，由国家科学基金会（SES-030318800）资助。第一轮访谈共采访了1，583人。然后，他们在2004年初（2月至6月）尝试重新采访所有白人（N= 1，229），并获得了868名非西班牙裔，非亚裔白人的完整采访。第二波访谈专门针对白人，以便对他们的种族态度进行非常详细的评估。这两次访谈详细了解了受访者的意识形态价值观、对政府的看法，最重要的是，对他们的种族态度和信仰进行了一些衡量。在新的采访中，他们将重点关注对卡特里娜飓风灾难的反应：对受害者的态度，对政府表现的评估，以及对援助受害者和重建新奥尔良政策的支持。与典型的横断面民意调查相比，研究设计使得对种族态度的政治影响进行更微妙的探索成为可能。因此，研究人员能够很好地评估种族态度在解释美国人对灾难的反应方面的公开和更微妙的政治影响。更广泛的影响：从更广泛的角度来看，这项研究将扩大政策制定者对公众如何应对灾害和政府如何应对此类事件的理解。这项研究还将提供证据，说明受害者的种族和阶级在多大程度上影响了公众对政府应对各种灾害的支持。重建新奥尔良和帮助其居民的努力可能会受到对飓风主要是穷人和黑人受害者的任何负面反应的严重破坏。对飓风受害者的看法也可能影响到新奥尔良救援工作对政府的信任程度。一些民意调查显示，人们对政府未来在飓风过后处理灾害的能力有些不信任。任何特定的灾难破坏对政府的信任的程度也可能取决于受影响公民的阶级和种族背景的看法。