Does Changing a Light Bulb Lead to Changing the World? Political Action and the Conscious Consumer

2012 ◽  
Vol 644 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Willis ◽  
Juliet B. Schor
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Consumption ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Actions

As the prevalence of “conscious” consumption has grown, questions have arisen about its relationship to political action. An influential argument holds that political consumption individualizes responsibility for environmental degradation and “crowds out” genuine forms of activism. While European and Canadian empirical research contradicts this perspective, finding that conscious consumption and political engagement are positively connected, no studies of this relationship have been conducted for the United States. This article presents ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models for two datasets, the 2004 General Social Survey and a detailed survey of approximately 2,200 conscious consumers conducted by the authors, to assess the nature of the relationship between conscious consumption and political activism. The authors find that measures of conscious consumption are significantly and positively related to political action, even when controlling for political involvement in the past. The results suggest that greater levels of political consumption are positively related to a range of political actions.

Political Identity and Confidence in Science and Religion in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-461
Author(s):  
Timothy L O’Brien ◽  
Shiri Noy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article investigates changes in public perceptions of science and religion in the United States between 1973 and 2018. We argue that the deepening ties between science and religion and opposing moral claims reconfigured the relationship between political identities and confidence in science and religion during this period. Our analysis of 30 waves of General Social Survey data finds that while Republicans once were more likely than Democrats to be more confident in science than religion, Democrats are now more likely to than Republicans. And, while Democrats used to be more likely than Republicans to be more confident in religion than science, this difference also reversed. These findings underscore the growing importance of political identities as predictors of confidence in science and religion and suggest that the politicization of science and religion fueled a perception that they provide not just alternative frameworks but opposing ones.

Boycott and Buycott as Emerging Modes of Civic Engagement

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Safety Concern ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Demographic Correlates ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Consumptive Behavior ◽  
Public Policy Decisions ◽  
Political Consumption

Citizens in post-industrialized societies such as the United States are becoming dissatisfied with some public policy decisions on the provisioning of food, prompting engagement in buycotts and boycotts as means to influence policy change. Such politically motivated consumptive behavior with social change motives is referred as political consumption. Using data from Ohio 2007 Survey of Food, Farming and the Environment, this research examines the attitudinal and demographic correlates of engagement in buycott and boycott. Findings reveal that engagement in boycott and buycott are shaped by food safety concern and knowledge of food production respectively. Both boycott and buycott behaviors are positively associated with conventional political action and organic labels. Those with greater political efficacy and high incomes are more likely to engage in buycott. These emerging forms of consumer-oriented political engagement may constitute an important force in setting the agenda for social change with respect to the issues targeted.

scholarly journals Education and Attitudes toward Interpersonal and State-Sanctioned Violence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Landon Schnabel
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
American Education ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

The link between education and liberal attitudes is one of the most consistent findings in public opinion research, but the theoretical explanations for this relationship warrant additional attention. Previous work suggested that the relationship is due to education socializing students to the “official culture” of the United States. This study uses the World Values Survey and General Social Survey to further develop this theory and test whether it applies to Americans’ attitudes toward justifiable violence. I find that Americans with more education are less likely to say that interpersonal violence—against women, children, and other individuals—can be justifiable. However, they are more likely to say that state-sanctioned violence—war and police violence—can be justifiable. These patterns are consistent with a modified socialization model of education and social attitudes. I conclude that American education socializes people to establishment culture, identity, and interests, which differentiate between unacceptable interpersonal violence and ostensibly acceptable state-sanctioned violence.

Finding critical trusters: A response pattern model of political trust

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Wu ◽  
Rima Wilkes
Keyword(s):  
Response Pattern ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Us ◽  
Specific Assessment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Democracies

How can declining political trust in Western democracies be explained, especially, when it remains stable and high in authoritarian societies? Underlying this question is a debate about whether political trust represents a diffuse orientation toward the political system as a whole or a specific assessment of incumbent performance. This article argues that the solution requires a move away from existing approaches that focus on question content and instead thinking about the pattern of responses. While previous work assumes that individuals display both specific and diffuse trust, we argue that the individual patterning of responses indicates either diffuse or specific trust but not both. We develop a response pattern model and use it to identify three types of individuals – critical trusters (specific trust), compliants (diffuse trust), and cynics (diffuse distrust). Tests of the model with the World Values Survey (WVS) and the US General Social Survey (GSS) show that democracies have a higher proportion of critical trusters than other systems of government and that the proportion of critical trusters has increased over time in the United States. The response pattern model directly connects cross-national and longitudinal empirical evidence to theory about the relationship between democracy and different types of trust.

scholarly journals Education and Attitudes toward Interpersonal and State-Sanctioned Violence

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (03) ◽  
pp. 505-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Landon Schnabel
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
American Education ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTThe link between education and liberal attitudes is among the most consistent findings in public-opinion research, but the theoretical explanations for this relationship warrant additional attention. Previous work suggested that the relationship is due to education socializing students to the “official culture” of the United States. This study uses the World Values Survey and General Social Survey to examine Americans’ attitudes toward the justifiability of violence. I find that Americans with more education are less likely to say that interpersonal violence—against women, children, and other individuals—can be justifiable. However, they are more likely to say that state-sanctioned violence—war and police violence—can be justifiable. These patterns are consistent with a modified socialization model of education and social attitudes. I conclude that American education socializes people to establishment culture, identity, and interests, which differentiate between unacceptable interpersonal violence and ostensibly acceptable state-sanctioned violence.

scholarly journals American Gun Culture: Are Pro-Gun Tendencies Ingrained in United States Residents?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Dunning
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Control Module ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Gun Culture ◽  
The Relationship

Does being born in the United States affect pro-gun tendencies? Does having parents born in the United States affect pro-gun tendencies? This study proposes that being born in the United States, and having one, or both, parents born in the United States will increase pro-gun tendencies. Previous literature focuses on the importance of demographics associated with gun attitudes within the United States, but does not examine the potential relationship between the country itself and its gun culture. Using the gun control module from the 2006 General Social Survey (N = 1179), a pro-gun scale was created for the purpose of measuring pro-gun opinions. The correlation results show that those born in the United States score higher on the pro-gun scale than those born outside of the United States. However, the iterative regression shows this relationship is mediated by political views. The number of parents born in the United States does not have an effect on where the respondent lands on the pro-gun scale. The results support the notion that being born in the United States increases the likelihood of scoring higher on the pro-gun scale. It does not support the relationship between the number of parents born in the United States and the respondent’s views on gun regulation.

In Government We Distrust: Citizen Skepticism and Democracy in the United States

The Forum ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Gershtenson ◽  
Dennis L. Plane
Keyword(s):  
General Social Survey ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The Us ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Past Half ◽  
American Thought

AbstractVirtually all accounts of political trust in the US regard declining trust over the past half-century to be troubling. We argue that these interpretations are in need of reassessment since they often are rooted in the normatively questionable assumption that higher trust is always desirable. We review traditions in democratic theory and American thought extolling the virtues of skepticism and distrust of government and discuss potential problems in common trust measures and conclusions based on them. Using data from the 2014 General Social Survey, we explore relationships between trust, commitment to being vigilant watchdogs of government, and attitudes and behaviors generally considered desirable for a healthy democracy. Our findings indicate that higher trust is not always accompanied by characteristics of good democratic citizens. In fact, it is those individuals who exhibit lower levels of trust with high levels of vigilance who are most politically engaged. Thus, healthy skepticism of government may contribute to the vitality of democracy.

The Arts as a Polarized Issue and the Role of Political Trust in Promoting the Arts: Evidence From the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Lim Jae Young ◽  
Woo Harin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Moderating Role

The arts in the United States, for a long time received strong support from both sides of the political aisle. However, in recent years, the arts have been transformed into a partisan issue that pits conservatives against liberals. The article points to the importance of political trust as a means of helping conservatives overcome their ideological inclinations and support the arts. Scholars argue that political trust influences more strongly individuals who perceive a given policy to be one that imposes ideological risks for them compared with those without such risks. Focusing on the moderating role of political trust, the article examines whether political trust can help alleviate the conservatives’ hostility to the arts. Relying on the 2016 General Social Survey, the article finds that conservatives have no direct relationship with arts spending, but they will be more likely to support arts spending when this is contingent upon political trust.

scholarly journals Gendered Religiosity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Landon Schnabel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Gender Expression ◽  
The Feminine

This study uses measures of cognitive and expressive aspects of gender as a social identity from the General Social Survey to examine whether and how they relate to religiosity. I find that religiosity is clearly gendered, but in different ways for women and men. Consistent with the feminine-typing of religion in the Christian-majority context of the United States, gender expression is linked with more religiousness among women but not men. Consistent with religion being a sometimes patriarchal institution, those with more pride in being men are more religious. I conclude that religiosity is gendered, that degendering and secularization processes could go hand-in-hand, and that future research on gender differences in religiosity should further examine variation among women and among men.

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