Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T04:29:48.760Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Information, Values, and Opinion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

John Zaller
John Zaller
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Past research has modeled mass opinion change as a two-step process involving reception of political communication and acceptance or rejection of that communication. I propose a two-message version of the reception-acceptance model, in which citizens are exposed to two opposing communication flows, either or both of which may affect their opinions. Variation over time in the relative intensity of the opposing communications, along with citizen differences in attention to politics and in political values, interact in the model to explain both cross-sectional patterns of mass opinion and opinion change across surveys. The model, which is applied to data on the Vietnam War, illuminates two research problems: how complex information flows diffuse through a mass audience and how this information shapes mass belief systems.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 85 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 1215 - 1237
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belknap, George, and Campbell, Angus. 1951. “Party Identification and Foreign Policy Attitudes.” Public Opinion Quarterly 15:601–23.Google Scholar
Brody, Richard. 1991. Assessing Presidential Character: The Media, Elite Opinions, and Public Support. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, P., Miller, Warren, and Stokes, Donald. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cantril, Hadley. 1944. Gauging Public Opinion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chaiken, Shelly. 1980. “Heuristic Versus Systematic Information Proccessing and the Use of Source Versus Message Cues in Persuasion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37:1387–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chong, Dennis, McClosky, Herbert, and Zaller, John. 1984. “Social Learning and the Acquisition of Political Attitudes.” In American Ethos, by McClosky, Herbert and Zaller, John. Boston: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip. 1962. “Information How and the Stability of Partisan Attitudes.” Public Opinion Quarterly 26:578–99.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip. 1964. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” In Ideology and Discontent, ed. Apter, David. Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Cotton, John L. 1985. “Cognitive Dissonance and Selective Exposure.” In Selective Exposure to Communication, ed. Zillmann, Dolf and Bryant, Jennings. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fan, David. 1988. Predictions of Public Opinion from the Mass Media. New York: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Fiske, Susan, Lau, Richard, and Smith, Richard. 1990. “On the Varieties and Utilities of Political Expertise.” Social Cognition 8:31–48.Google Scholar
Franklin, Charles. 1989. “Estimation across Datasets: Two-stage Auxiliary Instrumental Variables Estimation.” Political Analysis 1:1–24.Google Scholar
Gamson, William, and Modigliani, Andre. 1966. “Knowledge and Foreign Policy Opinion.” Public Opinion Quarterly 30:187–99.Google Scholar
Gelb, Leslie, and Betts, Richard. 1979. The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked. Washington: Brookings.Google Scholar
Gerber, Elisabeth, and Jackson, John. 1990. “Endogenous Preferences and the Study of Institutions.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Hallin, Dan. 1984. “Vietnam and the Myth of the Oppositional Media.” Journal of Politics 46: 2–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurwitz, Jon, and Pefley, Mark. 1988. “Report to the NES Board of Overseers on New Militarism Items.” National Election Studies: Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. 1965. Public Opinion and American Democracy. New York: Alfred Knopf.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald, and Sears, David. 1985. “Public Opinion and Political Action.” In The Handbook of Social Psychology, vol. 2, ed. Lindzey, Gardner and Aronson, Elliot. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Lord, Frederic, and Novick, Melvin. 1968. Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
McClosky, Herbert, and Brill, Alida. 1983. Dimensions of Tolerance. New York: Basic.Google Scholar
McGuire, William. 1969. “The Nature of Attitudes and Attitude Change.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, vol. 3, ed. Lindzey, Gardner and Aronson, Elliott. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
MacKuen, Michael. 1984. “Exposure to Information, Belief Integration, and Individual Responsiveness to Agenda Change.” American Political Science Review 78:372–91.Google Scholar
Mueller, John. 1973. War, Presidents, and Public Opinion. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Oreskes, Michael. 1990. “Poll Finds Americans Divided on Sanctions and Force in the Gulf.” New York Times 1412.Google Scholar
Page, Benjamin, and Shapiro, Robert. N.d. The Rational Public. University of Chicago Press. Forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petty, Richard C., and Cacioppo, John T.. 1986. Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Pierce, John, Beatty, Kathleen, and Hagner, Paul. 1982. The Dynamics of American Public Opinion. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.Google Scholar
Pollock, Philip H. III, Lilie, Stuart, and Vittes, M. Elliot. 1989. “Hard Issues, Core Values, and Vertical Constraint.” University of Central Florida. Typescript.Google Scholar
Price, Vincent. 1989. “Social Identification and Public Opinion.” Public Opinion Quarterly 53: 197–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, Vincent, and Zaller, John. 1990. “Measuring Individual Differences in Likelihood of News Reception.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Rokeach, Milton. 1973. The Nature of Human Values. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David, and Freedman, J.. 1967. “Selective Exposure to Information: A Critical Review.” Public Opinion Quarterly 23:194–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicklund, Robert A., and Brehm, Jack. 1976. Perspectives on Cognitive Dissonance. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Zaller, John. 1987. “The Diffusion of Political Attitudes.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58:821–37.Google Scholar
Zaller, John. 1989. “Bringing Converse Back In: Information How in Political Campaigns.” Political Analysis 1:181–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John. 1990. “Political Awareness, Elite Opinion Leadership, and the Mass Survey Response.” Social Cognition 8:125–53.Google Scholar
Zaller, John. N.d. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar