Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:43:33.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of the Gulf War on the Ingredients of Presidential Evaluations: Multidimensional Effects of Political Involvement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Jon A. Krosnick  and
Laura A. Brannon
Jon A. Krosnick
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Laura A. Brannon
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When the United States began its overt military conflict with Iraq in January 1991, the news media focused unceasingly on the Gulf crisis. Using national survey data, we show that this emphasis altered the ingredients of Americans' assessments of George Bush's performance. After the war, assessments were based more on beliefs about Bush's effectiveness in managing the conflict and less on confidence in his handling of other foreign relations matters or the domestic economy. Consequently, Bush's overall performance ratings increased dramatically following the war. We also show that the media's impact on political judgments was regulated by citizens' levels of political knowledge, exposure to political news, and interest in the war. Greater impact was associated with higher levels of knowledge and lower levels of exposure and interest. These findings challenge traditional views of these dimensions of political involvement and support a view derived from contemporary psychological theories of information processing.

Type
Research Notes
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 87 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 963 - 975
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartels, Larry M. 1993. “Messages Received: The Political Impact of Media Exposure.” American Political Science Review 87:267–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Richard A. 1991. Assessing the President: The Media, Elite Opinion, and Public Support. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassel, Carol A. 1984. “Issues in Measurement: The ‘Levels of Conceptualization’ Index of Ideological Sophistication.” American Journal of Political Science 28:418–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chong, Dennis, McClosky, Herbert, and Zaller, John. 1983. “Patterns of Support for Democratic and Capitalist Values in the United States.” British Journal of Political Science 13:401–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1962. “Information Flow and the Stability of Partisan Attitudes.” Public Opinion Quarterly 26:578–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1989. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Fiske, Susan T., and Taylor, Shelley E.. 1991. Social Cognition. New York: McGraw–Hill.Google Scholar
Hastie, Reid, and Park, Bernadette. 1986. “The Relationship between Memory and Judgment Depends on Whether the Judgment Task Is Memory-based or On-Line.” Psychological Review 93:258–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, E. Tory, and King, G.. 1981. “Accessibility of Social Constructs: Information-processing Consequences of Individual and Contextual Variability.” In Personality, Cognition, and Social Interaction, ed. Cantor, Nancy and Kihlstrom, John. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto, and Kinder, Donald R.. 1987. News That Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto, Kinder, Donald R., Peters, Mark D., and Krosnick, Jon A.. 1984. “The Evening News and Presidential Evaluations.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46:778–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judd, Charles M., and Downing, James W.. 1990. “Political Expertise and the Development of Attitude Consistency.” Social Cognition 8:104–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Sears, David O.. 1985. “Public Opinion and Political Action.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, ed. Lindzey, Gardner and Aronson, Elliot. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Krosnick, Jon A., and Kinder, Donald R.. 1990. “Altering the Foundations of Support for the President through Priming.” American Political Science Review 84:497–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krosnick, Jon A., and Milburn, Michael A.. 1990. “Psychological Determinants of Political Opinionation.” Social Cognition 8:49–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lodge, Milton, McGraw, Kathleen, and Stroh, Patrick. 1989. “An Impression-driven Model of Candidate Evaluation.” American Political Science Review 83:399–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombardi, Wendy J., Higgins, E. Tory, and Bargh, John A.. 1987. “The Role of Consciousness in Priming Effects on Categorization: Assimilation versus Contrast as a Function of Awareness of the Priming Task.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 13:411–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, William J. 1968. “Personality and Susceptibility to Social Influence.” In Handbook of Personality Theory and Research, ed. Borgatta, Edgar F. and Lambert, W. W.. Chicago: Rand–McNally.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Lester W. 1965. Political Participation. Chicago: Rand–McNally.Google Scholar
Neustadt, Richard E. 1960. Presidential Power. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Petty, Richard E., and Cacioppo, John T.. 1986. Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion. New York: Springer–Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, Douglas, and Rose, N.. 1981. Passing the President's Program. Presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Sigelman, L., and Conover, P. J.. 1981. “The Dynamics of Presidential Support during International Conflict Situations.” Political Behavior. 3:303–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. 1957. Models of Man. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A., and Stedry, A. C.. 1968. “Psychology and Economics.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, ed. Lindzey, Gardner and Aronson, Elliot. Reading, MA: Addison–Wesley.Google Scholar
Strack, Fritz, Schwarz, Norbert, Bless, Herbert, Kubler, Almut, and Wanke, Michaela. 1993. “Awareness of the Influence as a Determinant of Assimilation versus Contrast.” European Journal of Social Psychology 23:53–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyer, Robert S., and Hartwick, J.. 1980. “The Role of Information Retrieval and Conditional Inference Processes in Belief Formation and Change.” In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, ed. Berkowitz, L.. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Zaller, John R. 1987. “Diffusion of Political Attitudes.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53:821–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John R. 1989. “Bringing Converse Back In: Information Flow in Political Campaigns.” Political Analysis 1:181–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John R. 1990. “Political Awareness, Elite Opinion Leadership, and the Mass Survey Response.” Social Cognition 8:125–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinions. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.