How Moral Value Commitments Shape Responses to Political Civility and Incivility

Citizen exposure to political incivility is increasing. Studies have found heterogeneous responses to incivility, but we know little about what drives this variation. This study investigates whether emotional responses to both civility and incivility are driven by moral value commitments. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, we argue that incivility should pose more of a threat to people who embrace an individualizing system of moral regulation than a binding system. To test this, we conduct a 3 × 3 between-subjects survey-embedded vignette experiment with a representative sample of 1,789 U.S. respondents. The vignettes describe interactions between two candidates in a debate. The findings show that respondents clearly distinguish between civil, neutral, and uncivil debate and that these conditions yield distinct emotional responses. Moreover, we show “individualizers” have a stronger emotional response to incivility than “binders.” Responses to civility, however, appear to be unaffected by moral value commitments

Conspiracy Thinking in Europe and America: A Comparative Study

What explains conspiracy thinking in Europe and America? This is the first and largest comparative study of conspiracy thinking to date, presenting findings using a representative sample of 11,523 respondents in nine countries. First, it shows that the overall level of conspiracy thinking in Europe is equal to or slightly lower than the United States, contradicting the notion that conspiracy theories is an especially American phenomenon. Second, people more inclined to conspiracy thinking position themselves towards the right of the political spectrum, engage in magical thinking, feel distrust towards public officials and reject the political system. Finally, we find that – surprisingly – the country context in which respondents reside has hardly any effect as predictor of levels of conspiracy thinking or as a moderator of individual-level determinants. Heterogeneity in conspiratorial thinking seems to be largely a function of individual traits

Parties’ parliamentary attack behaviour throughout the electoral cycle

Studies examining parties’ attack behaviour, also called negative campaigning, largely neglect temporal dynamics. Therefoe, this paper examines how the electoral cycle, the period between two elections, impacts parties’ attack behaviour in parliaments. We argue that parties attack all the time but that the (i) level, (ii) type, and (iii) nature of attacks are affected by the electoral cycle as parties adapt their objectives. Analysing longitudinal data on parties’ attacks in the parliaments of Belgium, Croatia, and the UK (2010–2020), we find that when elections draw closer parties’ use of attacks, trait attacks, and uncivil attacks increases. We also find support for the notion that not all parties’ attack behaviour is equally impacted by the electoral cycle, as parties differ in sensitivity to the electoral cycle based on risk acceptance. Overall, the impact of the electoral cycle on parties’ strategic choices in general, and attack behaviour specifically, should not be ignored

The Effects of Politician’s Moral Violations on Voters' Moral Emotions

Existing empirical research on voters’ responses to individual politicians’ moral transgressions pays limited attention to moral emotions, although moral emotions are an integral part of voters’ moral judgment. This study looks at U.S. voters’ discrete moral emotional responses to politician’s moral violations and examines how these discrete moral emotional responses are dependent on voters’ own moral principles and the extent to which they identify with a political party. We report on a 5 × 3 between-subjects experiment where 2026 U.S. respondents reacted to politicians’ violations of one of five moral foundations defined by Moral Foundations Theory. We randomly vary which moral foundation is violated and the partisanship of the politician. While voters’ own moral principles somewhat condition moral emotional responses, we find that voters’ moral emotional responses mostly depend on partisan identification. When voters share party identity with a politician committing a moral violation, they respond with less anger, contempt, disgust and shame than when they do not share party identity. The effect is greater among strong partisans. However, we find limited evidence that specific moral emotions are activated by violations of particular moral foundations, thereby challenging Moral Foundations Theory

Measures of campaign negativity: comparing approaches and eliminating partisan bias

We compare measures of the tone of parties’ campaigns in the 2015 General Election in England, based on, respectively, coverage of parties’ campaigns in six national newspapers, citizens’ perceptions, and expert judgments. It is the most extensive study of such measurements outside the United States and one of very few to include expert judgments. We find that citizen perceptions and expert judgments are heavily affected by partisan bias. We show how these biases can be eliminated with a regression-based procedure. After such adjustment, seven of the eight resulting measures of parties’ campaign tone (five based on newspapers, one on citizen perceptions, and one on expert judgments) are strongly correlated. The eighth measure (based on one of the newspapers) depicts the tone of parties’ campaigns very differently owing to different criteria of what to cover in a campaign. Each of the three kinds of empirical information is adequate as a basis for measuring parties’ campaign tone, but adjustment for partisan biases is essential for perception and judgment data. Common apprehensions about the “subjectivity” of citizen perceptions are not justified, while expert judgments are equally useful, as long as sufficient information is available to eliminate their partisan bias

Unintended consequences of negative campaigning: Backlash and second-preference boost effects in a multi-party context

This study examines effects of negative campaigning by political parties on citizens’ electoral preferences in the 2015 General Election in England. We do so by using a large Internet panel study and an operationalisation of (perceived) negative campaigning that avoids social desirability. Our study acknowledges England’s multiparty system by distinguishing between the campaign tones of all parties. Potential problems of endogeneity are addressed by leveraging the panel structure of the data and by extensive controls. We find that electoral preferences are weakened for parties engaging in negative campaigning and that this backlash effect gets stronger over the course of the campaign. We also find support for a second-preferences boost hypothesis: preferences for one’s second-most preferred party are strengthened if its campaign is more positive than that of one’s most-preferred party

Mensch, Welt, Widerspruch : Bamberger Hegelwochen 96

Mensch, Welt, Widerspruch : Bamberger Hegelwochen 199

The contingency of voter learning: how election debates influence voters’ ability and accuracy to position parties in the 2010 Dutch election campaign

Election campaigns are expected to inform voters about parties’ issue positions, thereby increasing voters’ ability to influence future policy and thus enhancing the practice of democratic government. We argue that campaign learning is not only contingent on voters’ characteristics and different sources of information, but also on how parties communicate their issue positions in election debates. We combine a two-wave panel survey with content analysis data of three televised election debates. In cross-classified multilevel auto-regression models we examine the influence of these debates in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary election campaign on voters’ knowledge of the positions of eight parties on three issues. The Dutch multiparty system allows us to separate voters’ ability to position parties from their accuracy in ordering these parties. We reach three main conclusions. First, this study shows that voters become more able and accurate during the campaign. However, these campaign learning effects erode after the elections. Second, whereas voters’ attention to campaigns consistently contributes to their ability to position parties, its effect on accuracy is somewhat less consistent. Third, televised election debates contribute to what voters learn. Parties that advocate their issue positions in the debates stimulate debate viewers’ ability to position these parties on these issues. In the face of the complexity of campaigns and debates in multiparty systems, campaigns are more likely to boost voters’ subjective ability to position parties than their accuracy

Identification and Characterization of Post-activated B Cells in Systemic Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases (AID) such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are chronic inflammatory diseases in which abnormalities of B cell function play a central role. Although it is widely accepted that autoimmune B cells are hyperactive in vivo, a full understanding of their functional status in AID has not been delineated. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the functional capabilities of AID B cells and dissect the mechanisms underlying altered B cell function. Upon BCR activation, decreased spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) and Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) phosphorylation was noted in AID memory B cells combined with constitutive co-localization of CD22 and protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) non-receptor type 6 (SHP-1) along with hyporesponsiveness to TLR9 signaling, a Syk-dependent response. Similar BCR hyporesponsiveness was also noted specifically in SLE CD27- B cells together with increased PTP activities and increased transcripts for PTPN2, PTPN11, PTPN22, PTPRC, and PTPRO in SLE B cells. Additional studies revealed that repetitive BCR stimulation of normal B cells can induce BCR hyporesponsiveness and that tissue-resident memory B cells from AID patients also exhibited decreased responsiveness immediately ex vivo, suggesting that the hyporesponsive status can be acquired by repeated exposure to autoantigen(s) in vivo. Functional studies to overcome B cell hyporesponsiveness revealed that CD40 co-stimulation increased BCR signaling, induced proliferation, and downregulated PTP expression (PTPN2, PTPN22, and receptor-type PTPs). The data support the conclusion that hyporesponsiveness of AID and especially SLE B cells results from chronic in vivo stimulation through the BCR without T cell help mediated by CD40-CD154 interaction and is manifested by decreased phosphorylation of BCR-related proximal signaling molecules and increased PTPs. The hyporesponsiveness of AID B cells is similar to a form of functional anergy