Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes PDF
Preview Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes
IMPERSONAL INFLUENCE How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes People's perceptions of the attitudes and experiences of mass collectives are an increasingly important force in contemporary political life. In Impersonal Influence, Mutz goes beyond simply providing examples of how impersonal influence matters in the political process to provide a micro-level understanding of why information about distant and imper- sonal others often influences people's political attitudes and behaviors. Impersonal influence is worthy of attention both from the standpoint of its impact on contemporary politics, and because of its potential to expand the boundaries of our understanding of social influence pro- cesses, and media's relations to them. The book's conclusions do not exonerate media from the effects of inaccurate portrayals of collective experience or opinion, but they suggest that the ways in which people are influenced by these perceptions are in themselves not so much del- eterious to democracy as absolutely necessary to promoting accounta- bility in a large-scale society. Diana C. Mutz is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin-Madison. Cambridge Studies in Political Psychology and Public Opinion General Editors James H. Kuklinski and Dennis Chong University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University Editorial Board Stanley Feldman, State University of New York, Stony Brook Roger D. Masters, Dartmouth College William J. McGuire, Yale University Norbert Schwarz, Zentrum fiir Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen ZUMA, Mannheim, FRG David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University and Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley James A. Stimson, University of Iowa This series has been established in recognition of the growing sophistication in the resurgence of interest in political psychology and the study of public opinion. Its focus ranges from the kinds of mental processes that people employ when they think about democratic processes and make political choices to the nature and consequences of macro-level public opinion. Some of the works draw on developments in cognitive and social psychology, and relevant areas of philosophy. Appropriate subjects include the use of heu- ristics, the roles of core values and moral principles in political reasoning, the effects of expertise and sophistication, the roles of affect and emotion, and the nature of cognition and information processing. The emphasis is on systematic and rigorous empirical analysis, and a wide range of methodologies are appro- priate: traditional surveys, experimental surveys, laboratory experiments, focus groups, in-depth interviews, as well as others. These empirically oriented studies also consider normative implications for democratic politics generally. Politics, not psychology, is the primary focus, and it is expected that most works will deal with mass publics and democratic politics, although work on nondemocratic publics is not excluded. Other works will examine traditional topics in public opinion research, as well as contribute to the growing literature on aggregate opinion and its role in democratic societies. Other books in the series Asher Arian, Security Threatened: Surveying Israeli Opinion on Peace and War, o 521 48314 X, o 52.1 499*5 9 Other books in the series (continued) James DeNardo, The Amateur Strategist: Intuitive Deterrence Theories and the Politics of the Nuclear Arms Race, o 521 48121 X, o 521 48446 4 John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Congress as Public Enemy: Public Attitudes Toward American Political Institutions, o 521 48299 2, o 521 48336 o Robert Huckfeldt and John Sprague, Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication, o 521 45298 8 George E. Marcus, John L. Sullivan, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, and Sandra L. Wood, Experimenting with Violence o 521 43396 7, o 521 43997 3 Paul M. Sniderman, Richard A. Brody, and Philip E. Tetlock, Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology, o 521 40255 7, o 521 40770 2 John Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, o 521 40449 5, o 521 40786 9 IMPERSONAL INFLUENCE How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes DIANA C. MUTZ CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www. c ambridge. org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521631327 © Diana C.Mutz 1998 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1998 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN-13 978-0-521-63132-7 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-63132-7 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-63726-8 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-63726-0 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2006 to Robin
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