What Do We Know About Knowledge? Citizen Competence, "Psychological Realism" and Political Information

Abstract

166 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.My analysis also yields several larger points. First, knowledge has much in common with other political cognitions. Like attitudes, knowledge can result from constructed judgments, and, like attitudes or values, knowledge can comprise organized structures and systems. Second, though scholars typically assume that "more knowledge is better," more knowledge can sometimes have undesirable effects. Incorrect "misbeliefs" can skew attitudes, and when core preferences are advanced but not anchored this can also have undesirable effects. Third, previous research may have overstated the role of knowledge in facilitating "citizen competence." While I find that knowledge is important, I also find that cognitive skills are crucial as well.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD