Parenthood and the polarisation of political attitudes in Europe

This is an open access article available via the DOI in this record.Becoming a parent can affect the lives of men and women by introducing salient new social roles and identities, altered social networks and tighter constraints on financial resources and time. Even though modern family life has evolved in many important respects, parenthood continues to shape the lives of men and women in very different ways. Given that parenthood can change the lives of men and women in profoundly different ways, it seems that it would bring about changes in the way women and men think about politics and policy issues. Using data from the Wave 4 of the European Social Survey, this article investigates how parenthood, and the distinctions of motherhood and fatherhood, influence attitudes. The findings suggest that parenthood can have a polarising effect on attitudes, and that the polarising effect is most evident in countries where there is less support from the state for parental responsibilities.The work of Banducci and Stevens was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/H030883/1

Examining Women’s Experiences on the Campaign Trail: Campaign Ethnographies in English Local Elections 2022 & a Parliamentary By-Election. A Pilot Study for TWICEASGOOD

This is the final version.Local elections are an important feature of the electoral calendar. The provide an opportunity for voters to express preferences for local leaders, to hold incumbent councils and councilors accountable and they can also serve as referendums on the national government. To be a candidate in a local election requires a great deal of commitment, long hours of campaigning, contesting a local party selection process and negotiating often fractious local politics. During the campaign leading up to the 2022 English local elections, we conducted a pilot study for our European Commission funded project on women’s political leadership. Our objective was to establish whether quick campaign ethnographies (e.g., shadowing candidates, observing campaign events) was feasible, identify challenges and opportunities and assessing whether candidates would engage with our research. This report summarises our methods and initial key findings. We are grateful to our participants as through their engagement we were able to meet our objectives. Additionally, they also lead us to a deeper understanding of the campaign process which we would not have achieved without their participation.European Union Horizon 202

To Polarize or Not: Comparing Networks of News Consumption

This is the final version. Available via the link in this record.We use individual data on browsing histories combined with survey data to examine whether online news exposure exhibits signs of segregation and selectivity. By using online news behaviour combined with survey reports of attitudes, we can capture exposure to both traditional news sources and news shared via social media platforms. Most importantly, we can also examine what types of individuals (e.g. partisans, educated) are more likely to exhibit selective tendencies. We find, consistent with recent empirical work, the extent of segregation in exposure may be overstated. Furthermore, the degree of segregation and selectivity varies across groups that are defined by holding shared political preferences. For example, in the case of Brexit, those who supported the ‘Leave’ side were more selective in their news exposure. Our approach allows comparison of news exposure patterns by domains versus news exposure to topics. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis to allow this comparison.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council ES/N012283/1 "Measuring Information Exposure in Dynamic and Dependent Networks (ExpoNet)

Adoption and continued use of mobile contact tracing technology: multilevel explanations from a three-wave panel survey and linked data

OBJECTIVE: To identify the key individual-level (demographics, attitudes, mobility) and contextual (COVID-19 case numbers, tiers of mobility restrictions, urban districts) determinants of adopting the NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app and continued use overtime. DESIGN AND SETTING: A three-wave panel survey conducted in England in July 2020 (background survey), November 2020 (first measure of app adoption) and March 2021 (continued use of app and new adopters) linked with official data. PARTICIPANTS: N=2500 adults living in England, representative of England's population in terms of regional distribution, age and gender (2011 census). PRIMARY OUTCOME: Repeated measures of self-reported app usage. ANALYTICAL APPROACH: Multilevel logistic regression linking a range of individual level (from survey) and contextual (from linked data) determinants to app usage. RESULTS: We observe initial app uptake at 41%, 95% CI (0.39% to 0.43%), and a 12% drop-out rate by March 2021, 95% CI (0.10% to 0.14%). We also found that 7% of nonusers as of wave 2 became new adopters by wave 3, 95% CI (0.05% to 0.08%). Initial uptake (or failure to use) of the app associated with social norms, privacy concerns and misinformation about third-party data access, with those living in postal districts with restrictions on mobility less likely to use the app. Perceived lack of transparent evidence of effectiveness was associated with drop-out of use. In addition, those who trusted the government were more likely to adopt in wave 3 as new adopters. CONCLUSIONS: Successful uptake of the contact tracing app should be evaluated within the wider context of the UK Government's response to the crisis. Trust in government is key to adoption of the app in wave 3 while continued use is linked to perceptions of transparent evidence. Providing clear information to address privacy concerns could increase uptake, however, the disparities in continued use among ethnic minority participants needs further investigation

British Election Longitudinal News Study 2015–2019: Print news coverage with validated topics and candidate sentiment

The British Election Longitudinal News Study 2015–2019 (BELNS) covers campaign coverage relating to three general elections: 2015, 2017, 2019. The print newspaper component in this release tracks topic and general election candidate coverage across 46 national and local sources, including actor-level sentiment. For a full description, see Documentation.Corrected file version uploaded on 17-05-2021.The British Election Longitudinal News Study 2015–2019 (BELNS) covers campaign coverage relating to three general elections: 2015, 2017, 2019. The print newspaper component in this release tracks topic and general election candidate coverage across 46 national and local sources, including actor-level sentiment.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

Financing Direct Democracy: Revisiting the Research on Campaign Spending and Citizen Initiatives

The conventional view in the direct democracy literature is that spending against a measure is more effective than spending in favor of a measure, but the empirical results underlying this conclusion have been questioned by recent research. We argue that the conventional finding is driven by the endogenous nature of campaign spending: initiative proponents spend more when their ballot measure is likely to fail. We address this endogeneity by using an instrumental variables approach to analyze a comprehensive dataset of ballot propositions in California from 1976 to 2004. We find that both support and opposition spending on citizen initiatives have strong, statistically significant, and countervailing effects. We confirm this finding by looking at time series data from early polling on a subset of these measures. Both analyses show that spending in favor of citizen initiatives substantially increases their chances of passage, just as opposition spending decreases this likelihood