Ambivalence and the Structure of Political Opinion

207 Pages·2005·0.942 MB·English

by  Stephen C. Craig, Michael D. Martinez (eds.)

Ambivalence and the Structure of
Political Opinion
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Ambivalence and the Structure of
Political Opinion
Edited by
Stephen C. Craig
and
Michael D. Martinez
AMBIVALENCEANDTHESTRUCTUREOFPOLITICALOPINION
© Stephen C.Craig and Michael D.Martinez,2005.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-4039-6571-4
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2005 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
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Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-52907-0 ISBN 978-1-4039-7909-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403979094
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ambivalence and the structure of political opinion / edited by
Stephen C.Craig and Michael D.Martinez.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Public opinion—United States.2.United States—Politics and
government—Public opinion.3.Ambivalence.I.Craig,Stephen C.
II.Martinez,Michael D.
HN90.P8A5 2004
303.3(cid:2)8(cid:2)0973—dc22 2004049005
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd,Chennai,India.
First edition:January 2005
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
Diane and Wanda
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Contents
List of Tables ix
List of Figures xi
Notes on Contributors xiii
1. Pros and Cons: Ambivalence and Public Opinion 1
Michael D. Martinez, Stephen C. Craig, and James G. Kane
2. Ambivalence as Internal Conflict 15
Bethany Albertson, John Brehm, and R. Michael Alvarez
3. Ambivalence and Accessibility: The Consequences of
Accessible Ambivalence 33
Ian R. Newby-Clark, Ian McGregor, and Mark P. Zanna
4. Ambivalence and Response Instability: A Panel Study 55
Stephen C. Craig, Michael D. Martinez, and James G. Kane
5. Meta-Psychological Versus Operative Measures of
Ambivalence:Differentiating the Consequences of Perceived
Intra-Psychic Conflict and Real Intra-Psychic Conflict 73
Allyson L. Holbrook and Jon A. Krosnick
6. Ambivalence Toward American Political Institutions:
Sources and Consequences 105
Kathleen M. McGraw and Brandon Bartels
7. Patriotic to the Core? American Ambivalence About America 127
Jack Citrin and Samantha Luks
8. Is It Really Ambivalence? Public Opinion Toward
Government Spending 149
William G. Jacoby
References 173
Index 193
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List of Tables
2.1 Heteroskedastic probit as measure of ambivalence 25
2.2 Subjective assessment of ambivalence 27
2.3 Response latency as measure of ambivalence 28
4.1 Frequency of ambivalent feelings on seven
GSS abortion statements 60
4.2 Instability of abortion preferences over time 62
4.3 A multivariate model of response instability on
elective abortion 65
4.4 A multivariate model of response instability on
traumatic abortion 66
5.1 Effects of ambivalence on resistance, information
gathering, false consensus, and activism 90
5.2 Effects of ambivalence on hostile media bias and
ingredients of candidate evaluation 91
6.1 Distribution of trait beliefs and level of ambivalence 111
6.2 Institutional ambivalence and evaluation correlations 112
6.3 Sources of institutional ambivalence 114
6.4 Ambivalence and information seeking 120
7.1 Distribution of responses to GSS emotional patriotism items 134
7.2 Confirmatory factor analysis of emotional patriotism items 137
7.3 Impact of emotional ambivalence on pride in America 143
7.4 Impact of confidence in government on
emotional ambivalence 145
8.1 Frequency distributions for policy-specific government
spending questions 154
8.2 Beliefs about government size/power and attitudes
toward policy-specific government spending 155
8.3 Scaled order of program-specific federal spending alternatives 159
8.4 Impact of policy-specific spending preferences on
general attitudes toward government spending 162
8.5 Determinants of attitudes toward government spending 166