In this paper, I use data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society to investigate the social and political attitudes of cultural omnivores. I report a threefold typology of visual arts consumption that is consistent with previous research. Then by linking data across the two panel surveys, I show that cultural consumption is associated with a wide range of social attitu...

Identification with a social group can operate as a powerful heuristic, allowing an individual to easily make political judgments. But, a person can identify with multiple groups, which may be mobilized toward different political ends. How do opinions and behaviors change when a person’s identities are in competition with each other, creating cross-pressures? The Evangelical Immigration Table (...

Evidence for political effects from fictional programming remains thin. In this study we offer a conservative test of the political power of fictional television dramas by evaluating whether minor differences in character portrayals and plot details affect viewers’ attitudes and policy preferences. We rely on a variation on the switching replications design in which a representative sample watc...

* This report is based on the advance release of the 2006 ANES Pilot Study dataset and preliminary and incomplete

Commonly held political opinions provide an ecologically relevant focus for studying the interactions of environmental context, affect or emotion, and cognition. To explore this approach to information processing John T. Lanzetta helped initiate a series of experiments examining how emotional responses to politicians' nonverbal displays influence changes in attitude toward these leaders. Althou...

There is an error in the third sentence of the fourth paragraph in “The Nature of Personality Traits and Political Attitudes” section of the Introduction. The correct sentence is: For the FFM and Eysenck’s personality traits, correlations between Openness and social attitudes, Neuroticism and economic attitudes, Conscientiousness and social attitudes, the P-Scale and military/defense attitudes,...

Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals' experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with physiological traits. In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and t...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to theorize the heightened exposure to information via the internet can lead citizens to be more critical about political conditions in their countries because using social media increases the likelihood of being exposed to dissident information. Further, the authors argue that the degree to which information is restricted, or internet access is limited, a...

Humans are a coalitional, parochial species. Yet, extreme actions of solidarity are sometimes taken for distant or unrelated groups. What motivates people to become solidary with groups to which they do not belong originally? Here, we demonstrate that such distant solidarity can occur when the perceived treatment of an out-group clashes with one's political beliefs (e.g., for Leftists, oppressi...