Crisis, Charisma and Consequences: Evidence from the 2004 US Presidential Election

We investigate how conditions of crisis affect perceptions of charisma and how these, in turn, affect blame attribution and self-sacrificial behavior. Our data are from a 2004 experimental study that preceded the U.S. presidential election, in which we manipulated concerns of a terrorist attack. The results show that those in the Crisis condition rated Bush higher on perceptions of charisma compared to those in the Good Times condition. The Crisis condition also directly and indirectly, via perceptions of charisma, affected whether Bush was blamed for failures in Iraq and our subjects’ willingness to sacrifice their personal resources for his candidacy

Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Selectively Target Homology Dependent DNA Repair Defective Cells and Elevate Non-Homologous Endjoining Activity

Background: We have previously used the ATAD5-luciferase high-throughput screening assay to identify genotoxic compounds with potential chemotherapeutic capabilities. The successful identification of known genotoxic agents, including the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) trichostatin A (TSA), confirmed the specificity of the screen since TSA has been widely studied for its ability to cause apoptosis in cancer cells. Because many cancers have acquired mutations in DNA damage checkpoints or repair pathways, we hypothesized that these cancers may be susceptible to treatments that target compensatory pathways. Here, we used a panel of isogenic chicken DT40 B lymphocyte mutant and human cell lines to investigate the ability of TSA to define selective pathways that promote HDACi toxicity. Results: HDACi induced a DNA damage response and reduced viability in all repair deficient DT40 mutants although ATM-nulls were least affected. The most dramatic sensitivity was observed in mutants lacking the homology dependent repair (HDR) factor BLM or the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) and HDR factors, KU/RAD54, suggesting an involvement of either HDR or NHEJ in HDACi-induced cell death. To extend these findings, we measured the frequencies of HDR and NHEJ after HDACi treatment and monitored viability in human cell lines comparably deficient in HDR or NHEJ. Although no difference in HDR frequency was observed between HDACi treated and untreated cells, HDR-defective human cell lines were clearly more sensitive than wild type. Unexpectedly, cells treated with HDACis showed a significantly elevated NHEJ frequency. Conclusions: HDACi targeting drugs induced significant increases in NHEJ activity in human cell lines but did not alter HDR frequency. Moreover, HDR is required for cellular resistance to HDACi therapy; therefore, NHEJ does not appear to be a critical axis for HDACi resistance. Rather, HDACi compounds induced DNA damage, most likely double strand breaks (DSBs), and HDR proficiency is correlated with cell survivalclose4

Las percepciones de liderazgo en el contexto de las elecciones mexicanas de 2006

¿Hasta qué punto los votantes en 2006 consideraron a Felipe Calderón y a Andrés ­Manuel López Obrador como líderes fuertes y carismáticos? ¿Qué factores moldea­ ron estas percepciones sobre la imagen de los candidatos? ¿Incidieron significativamente estas percepciones en la decisión del voto? Con base en los datos de la encuesta cide-cses 2006, mostramos que Calderón y López Obrador generaron en los votantes percepcio­nes similares acerca de su fortaleza y su carisma. Argumentamos que las condiciones de ame­ naza tuvieron efectos importantes en la manera en que el electo­rado percibió a los líderes y su carisma. Este argumento se sustenta con evidencia empírica analizada con métodos de regresión múltiple. Finalmente, justificamos la importancia del carisma al demostrar que existe una relación cercana entre percepción de la imagen de estos dos candidatos y la decisión del voto

Messaging Matters: How Information about Underrepresentation Affects the Political Participation of Racial and Ethnic Groups in California

Can racial and ethnic minorities be mobilized to participate in politics at greater rates?  We theorize that mobilization messages providing information about a group’s underrepresentation in government may increase participation among racial/ethnic minorities.  However, responsiveness to such messages should vary depending on individuals’ prior awareness of their group’s underrepresentation. Using a two-wave panel survey that randomly assigned different get out the vote messages, we find that messages highlighting a racial/ethnic group’s underrepresentation in government do not increase Latinos’, Blacks’, or Asians’ likelihood of voting. We also find that such messages can decrease other forms of political participation among Asians and Latinos who were previously unaware of their group’s underrepresentation. These findings indicate that information about underrepresentation can actually demobilize certain segments of the electorate. Thus, practical efforts to boost participation among underrepresented groups should either communicate information about underrepresentation in other ways or provide a different type of message altogether

Response to "On the Empirical Validity of 'Gendered Reactions to Terrorist Attacks Can Cause Slumps not Bumps'"

Jetter and Stockley (2023) successfully replicate nearly all 140 analyses we report in the original paper and appendix. In the process, they identified two errors. We appreciate this effort and made corrections to the data and code. Revising the analyses to correct these errors results in small changes to the output but does not change the significance, direction, or substantive effects of the central variables in the paper and does not alter our conclusions. The authors of the replication paper then extend their efforts beyond replication and, based on this work, conclude our work "does not provide sufficient support" for a gendered revision to the conventional rally 'round the flag framework. We respectfully disagree with their conclusion because it ignores theory, disregards key components of the critical test case, ignores evidence provided in the article and supplementary materials, revises the empirical approach, and commits to strict p-value cut-offs that risk Type II errors.This paper responds to: Jetter, M., and K. Stockley. 2023. On the Empirical Validity of "Gendered Reactions to Terrorist Attacks Can Cause Slumps not Bumps" (Holman et al., 2022). I4R Discussion Paper Series, No. 41. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272842July 2023 (Updated Version, July 19