Recruiting Values for Opinion

这个项目考察了传播者如何通过招募社会价值观来影响对政治问题的看法。价值观是重要的意见来源，为公民评估公共政策提供了持久的标准。然而，许多关于价值观的研究并没有充分解决价值观影响态度的政治和心理动态。社会价值和政治问题之间的联系是有争议的公开辩论的对象；政治传播者竞相在公众头脑中构建某些问题和价值观之间的明显联系。由于有争议的问题往往会使两种或更多受人尊敬的价值观直接竞争，游击队也试图影响公众对相互竞争的价值观的优先顺序。本项目将重点研究传播者用来招募价值观的策略，并将考察这些策略对个人政治态度的影响。传播者直截了当地声称某一价值观与特定问题有关，例如，和平是爱国的。传播者还可以在目标问题和熟悉的问题之间提供类比，并具有明确的价值指向。因此，例如，那些反对新的互联网安全措施的人可能会将这些规定比作窃听，以使隐私价值看起来特别相关。交际者还可能提供社交和行为暗示，以此来玷污对方所招募的价值观。在这样做的过程中，传播者试图将对手的价值观与声名狼藉的社会团体或令人不快的行为联系起来。在价值支撑中，传播者试图通过将价值与其他价值观联系起来，例如爱国主义或宗教信仰，来放大价值的尊重。最后，传播者可以重新定义或重新标记一个价值。例如，对平等权利的呼吁可以被重新贴上对特殊权利的要求的标签；或者，平等可以被狭义地定义为机会平等，而不是结果不平等。为了全面考察价值招聘的多样性和影响，本项目结合了案例研究、内容分析和实验设计。在案例研究和内容分析中，价值招聘将在实际的公众争议过程中进行审查。案例研究将包括对政治组织领导人的采访，以检查这些组织如何将社会价值观纳入其公共竞选活动。内容分析将考察价值招聘策略如何在不同问题上有所不同。这项实验工作将考察价值招募对个人政治态度的影响。PI还将考察个人如何认识到某些价值观与特定争议的相关性，以及他们如何判断相互竞争的价值观的相对重要性。这项研究的广泛影响和科学贡献集中在这个奖项将为政治学和社会心理学中关于价值观对舆论的影响的现有文献带来额外的洞察力。它将提供关于社会价值观在关于政治争议的公开辩论中所起作用的更完整的信息。它还将有助于更好地理解将价值观与态度联系起来的个人心理过程。

This project examines how communicators influence opinion on political issues by recruiting social values. Values serve as important sources of opinion by providing enduring standards with which citizens can evaluate public policies. Much of the research on values does not, however, adequately address the political and psychological dynamics by which values influence attitudes. The association between social values and political issues is the object of contentious public debate; political communicators compete to construct perceived linkages in public's mind between certain issues and values. Because controversial issues often bring two or more esteemed values into direct competition, partisans also try to influence the public's prioritization of competing values. This project focuses on the tactics that communicators use to recruit values, and will also examine the impact of such tactics on individual political attitudes.This project will examine five separate value recruitment tactics. The communicator makes a straightforward claim that a value is relevant to a particular issue, e.g., Peace is patriotic. Communicators can also offer analogies between the target issue and a familiar issue with clear value referents. So, for example, those objecting to new Internet security measures might compare the regulations to wiretapping to make privacy values seem especially relevant. The communicator might also offer social and behavioral cues as a way of tarnishing the values recruited by the opposing side. In so doing, the communicator seeks to associate the opponent's values with disreputable social groups or unsavory behavior. In value bolstering, the communicator seeks to magnify the value's esteem by linking it to other values, such as patriotism or religiosity. Finally, the communicator may redefine or relabel a value. A call for equal rights, for example, might be relabeled as a demand for special rights; alternatively, equality might be defined narrowly as is equal opportunity, rather than unequal outcomes. To provide a comprehensive examination of the variety and impact of value recruitment, this project incorporates case study, content analysis, and experimental designs. In the case studies and content analyses, value recruitment will be examined over the course of actual public controversies. The case studies will include interviews with the leaders of political organizations to examine how the groups incorporated social values into their public campaigns. The content analysis will examine how value recruitment tactics vary across issues. The experimental work will examine the effects of value recruitment on individual political attitudes. The PI will also examine how individuals come to perceive the relevance of certain values for specific controversies, and how they judge the relative importance of competing values. This research's broad impact and scientific contribution centers on the added insight this award will bring to the extant literature in political science and social psychology on the effects of values on public opinion. It will provide more complete information about the role of social values in public debate over political controversies. It will also contribute to a better understanding of the individual psychological processes linking values to attitudes.