Doctoral Dissertation Research: Deceptive Self-Signals - Activating Political Identity to Affirm a Positive Self-Image

今天，大量的政治表达发生在社交网络环境中。 这些都是低风险的活动，个人只是表达意见，往往是匿名的，或基本上匿名。该提案旨在解释为什么个人在社交媒体上表达对某些政策和政党的支持，而这样做不太可能提高他们的社会地位，物质福利或影响公共政策。特别是，PI询问个人是否仅仅从这种表达中获得某种类型的利益，即使他们匿名这样做，并评估政治表达背后的动机是否与其他类型的表达不同。 虽然这种政治表达非常普遍，但人们为什么这样做，以及他们从中获得了什么好处，我们缺乏明确的答案。这项研究基于行为经济学领域的一个概念，即自我信号，为一种政治行为提供了新的解释。在这方面，这项研究有助于解释一个新兴类型的政治行为，利用跨学科的方法。 通过更好地了解个人的不同动机，该研究有可能在一个以高度政治极化为标志的时代增加积极集体结果的可能性。技术在这个项目中，PI理论认为，人们有动机进行政治表达，部分是作为一种低成本的方式向自己发出信号，表明他们拥有某些期望的属性，价值观和相关行为。 个人对自己所拥有的理想属性和价值观的了解程度不完全，并将政治表达作为一种低成本的方式来获得积极的自我形象。 此外，尽管自我认同的自由主义者和保守主义者都有类似的动机参与这种行为，但他们这样做是为了激活与各自意识形态倾向相关的不同的自我形象。表达对自由主义政策的支持是一种相对廉价的方式，让自我认同的自由主义者感到他们是慷慨和富有同情心的，就像表达对保守主义政策的支持是一种低成本的方式，让自我认同的保守主义者感到道德和自力更生。也就是说，人们不会把他们的“钱放在他们的嘴上。“自我认同的自由主义者不会向慈善机构捐赠更多，自我认同的保守主义者也不会更道德。因此，政治表达可能构成一种欺骗性的自我信号。为了评估这一理论，PI采用了创新的实验设计。具体来说，PI测试是否表现出增强的自我形象后，匿名的政治表达，以及是否属性上的受试者评价自己更高符合他们的意识形态。接下来，PI测试个人是否觉得他们在参与政治表达后可以采取更自私的行动，特别是当以符合期望价值的方式行事的成本增加时。最后，PI调查是否吸引个人特定的自我形象可以导致他们从事的政治表达，需要更高的成本，这可能会导致更理想的类型的集体成果。

GeneralA large amount of political expression today occurs in social network settings. These are low-stakes exercises in which individuals simply express opinions that are often anonymous, or essentially anonymous. This proposal seeks to explain why individuals express support for certain policies and political parties on social media when doing so is unlikely to enhance their social standing, material well-being, or to influence public policy. In particular, the PI asks whether individuals gain some type of benefit simply from making such expressions, even if they do so anonymously, and assesses whether the motivations underlying political expression are distinct from those of other types of expression. While this type of political expression is extremely common, we lack clear answers to why people do it and what benefits they gain from it. This study provides a new explanation for a type of political behavior based on a concept from the field of behavioral economics known as self-signaling. In this respect, the study helps to explain an emerging type of political behavior by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach. By gaining a better understanding of the individuals' different motivations, the study has the potential to increase the likelihood for positive collective outcomes in an era marked by high degrees of political polarization.TechnicalIn this project, the PI theorizes that people are motivated to make political expressions partly as a low-cost way of signaling to themselves that they possess certain desired attributes, values, and associated behavior. Individuals have incomplete knowledge about extent to which they possess desired attributes and values, and use political expression as a low-cost way to gain a positive self-image. Further, although both self-identified liberals and conservatives are similarly motivated to engage in this behavior, they do so to activate different desired self-images associated with their respective ideological disposition. Expressing support for liberal policies is a relatively costless way for self-identifying liberals to feel that they are generous and compassionate, just as expressing support for conservative policies is a low-cost way for self-identifying conservatives to feel moral and self-reliant. That said, people do not put their "money where their mouth is." Self-identified liberals do not donate more to charity, nor are self-identified conservatives more moral. Thus, political expression may constitute a form of deceptive self-signaling. To evaluate this theory, the PI utilizes an innovative experimental design. Specifically, the PI tests whether subjects exhibit an enhanced self-image following anonymous political expression, and whether the attributes on which subjects rate themselves more highly correspond with their ideology. Next, the PI tests whether individuals feel they can act more selfishly after engaging in political expression, especially when the costs to acting in a manner consistent with the desired values increases. Last, the PI investigates whether appealing to individuals-specific self-images can lead them to engage in political expressions that entail higher costs, which could lead to more desirable types of collective outcomes.