EAGER: Perceiving Political Distributions

本研究的重点是动机的政治知觉，特别是因为它们涉及到公民行为和政治行为，是相关的美国2012年大选。与过去大量关于政治态度的研究不同，拟议中的工作侧重于群体间的力量和情绪（例如由真实的或预期的党派辩论引发的愤怒），因为它们与对他人政治态度的看法有关。 重要的是，拟议的研究将挑战两个既定的实证研究结果的看法，政治态度分布。(1)偏振投影：与人们将自己的态度投射到他人身上的既定观点相反，该提案将测试从试点数据中得出的假设，即人们也将自己的态度极端投射到他人身上-这样，具有更极端政治态度的人比具有不那么极端政治态度的人感知到更多的政治极化。这种模式有时会产生与简单投射相反的结果。(2)组内同质性：过去的研究表明，人们认为他们自己的群体比外界群体更异质（“他们都很相似，我们是独一无二的。").然而，这项工作将测试相反的假设，即在党派政治领域，人们认为他们自己的群体的态度比“另一方”的态度更加（而不是更少）同质。（“我们是团结的;他们是分裂的。“）拟议的研究包括四个实验室实验和一个在2012年选举背景下的纵向国家实地实验。实地实验将在广泛的意识形态水平上（沿着具体的政治问题）考察极化投射和群体内同质性，因为它们随着时间的推移而发展，并将考察这些模式如何影响公民行为，如投票。拟议的研究将为社会和社会心理学、政治学、商业、法律、社会学和其他领域的社会科学家带来至少三个实质性的好处。首先，该研究将为研究人员提供一种新颖的，用户友好的方法来测量感知分布，可以应用于许多领域，包括概率，事件频率和其他非政治态度。其次，拟议的研究将支持一个多样化的研究小组，目前包括五名博士生和十名本科生，其中约一半是女性。拟议的研究将为这些学生提供重要的培训内容。最后，也是至关重要的是，通过促进人们的态度和政治身份如何影响他们对他人政治态度的看法的理解，这项工作可以告知公民和公民领导人影响公民行为的因素。对人们如何看待政治分配的这种理解也将使决策者能够制定更好和更明智的政策，鼓励和促进公民参与。

The present research focuses on motivated political perceptions, especially as they relate to civic behavior and political behavior that is relevant to the United States 2012 elections. Unlike a great deal of past research on political attitudes, the proposed work focuses on intergroup forces and emotions (such as the anger that is fueled by real or anticipated partisan debates) as they relate to perceptions of the political attitudes of others. Importantly, the proposed research will challenge two well established empirical findings about perceptions of political attitude distributions. (1) Polarization projection: In contrast to the established idea that people project their own attitudes onto others, the proposal will test the hypothesis, derived from pilot data, that people also project their attitude extremity onto others -- such that people with more extreme political attitudes perceive more political polarization than do with people with less extreme political attitudes. This pattern can sometimes produce the opposite of simple projection. (2) Ingroup homogeneity: Past research shows that people perceive their own groups as more heterogeneous than outgroups ("They are all alike; we are unique."). However, this work will test the opposite hypothesis, that in partisan political domains, people perceive their own group's attitudes as more (not less) homogeneous than the "other side's" attitudes. ("We are united; they are divided.") The proposed research includes four lab experiments and a longitudinal national field experiment in the context of the 2012 elections. The field experiment will examine polarization projection and ingroup homogeneity at the level of broad ideology (along with specific political issues) as they develop over time, and will examine how these patterns influence civic actions such as voting. The proposed studies will yield at least three substantial benefits to society and to social scientists in social psychology, political science, business, law, sociology, and other areas. First, the research will make available to researchers a novel, user-friendly methodology for measuring perceived distributions that could be applied in many domains including probability, event frequency, and other, non-political attitudes. Second, the proposed studies will support a diverse research group that currently includes five PhD students and ten undergraduates, approximately half of whom are women. The proposed research will provide an important training component for these students. Finally, and critically, by fostering understanding of how people's attitudes and political identities influence their perceptions of others' political attitudes, this work can inform citizens and civic leaders about factors influencing civic behavior. Such an understanding of how people perceive political distributions would also enable policy makers to craft better and more informed policies that encourage and facilitate civic engagement.