Contrary to Popular Belief
Workshop showcases original political science research

Fall, 2009, Volume 31, Number 1

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto studies campaign ad effects and Latinos.

More than 90 social scientists and graduate students from across the Midwest came to discuss an array of original research at the third annual Chicago Area Political and Social Behavior Workshop on May 8 at Northwestern.

“Given the quality of these trend-bucking research presentations, it’s not surprising we had the most participants ever,” said IPR political scientist James Druckman, who organized the event. The workshop was co-sponsored by IPR. Summaries of the presentations are below.

Campaign Contributions and Judicial Legitimacy
Whether campaign contributions undermine judicial legitimacy is an issue of growing importance. To test if donations affect perceptions of impartiality, Washington University political scientist James L. Gibson analyzed experimental vignettes based on a real Supreme Court case that examined judicial conflicts of interest. He found that campaign contributions do threaten judicial legitimacy. Surprisingly, however, the commonly applied solution of recusal does little to restore perceptions of fairness.

Origins of Contemporary Political Behavior
University of Chicago political scientist Eric Oliver is exploring if political beliefs have biological origins. In an online experiment, more than 2,000 Americans were shown a 40-second slideshow of seven hypothetical, white male “elected officials” and then were asked to match faces to the previously shown descriptions. Initial results show that respondents could better identify officials who shared their political values and also those with outgroup moral policies, i.e., taking a bribe.

Social Networks and “Correct” Voting
Political scientist Scott McClurg of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and his colleague are looking at whether a person’s social networks can influence “correct” vote choices, or voting in line with one’s stated political beliefs, using two nationally representative samples. Their data debunks criticism of networks as being too insular and leading to decreased political engagement. “By and large, networks are probably contributing to better decisions than what would happen in their absence,” McClurg said.

Ethnically Targeted Advertising
Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, an IPR political scientist, is studying how ethnically targeted political ads influence voters—most recently through an online survey experiment
she headed in Los Angeles County in fall 2008.  The researchers found strong evidence for the presence of unintended or “ricochet” effects—which were negative for blacks, and in some cases for whites. Yet positive richochet effects were found for Asians, probably due to a cultural and language outgroup affinity with Latinos.

The next CAB workshop will be held on May 7. For more information, see www.northwestern.edu/ipr.