Personality and the Policy Positions of Politicians

Politicians’ support of or opposition to concrete policies is uniquely consequential for policymaking, public opinion, and a host of other societal outcomes. Explaining their policy positions is therefore a major research agenda in political science. Here, we evaluate the role of politicians’ personality traits, measured with the Big Five typology, in shaping how liberal or conservative their economic and social policy positions are. While existing research establishes this link among nonelites, it is far from obvious that the same holds for politicians, who have systematically different personality profiles, and whose positions are constrained by party lines. Using an in-person study of 893 legislators in five countries who completed personality questionnaires and provided detailed issue positions, we find that Openness to Experience is strongly and positively predictive of politicians’ liberal positions on both economic and social policies, but a null relationship for Conscientiousness. We also find that Extraversion predicts more conservative economic (but not social) policy positions. We discuss implications for the role of elites’ individual characteristics in policymaking.     

Risk Orientation,Risk Exposure,and Policy Opinions: The Case of Free Trade

This research offers a general framework for thinking about how individual disposition towards risk influences public policy opinions. Affinity for or aversion to risk is, in part, a stable personality characteristic that interacts with risk and reward messages in complex policy debates. We examine the implications of this for public opinions about free trade with extensions to immigration policy. We argue and find that opinions about policy depend jointly upon one's exposure to potential gains or losses and one's risk orientation. The findings have implications for crafting and framing public policies because they highlight how individual characteristics are likely to shape the public response to policy proposals. Our findings suggest that there may be limits, in the aggregate, to the degree to which elites can alter the level of support for policies through framing or through offering risk‐mitigating policy provisions.     

Psychological science in the public arena: Three cases of dubious influence

Psychological science has a great deal to contribute to social welfare in all societies, because the world's most pressing social problems are behavioral in nature—violence, hunger, drug abuse, environmental pollution, low worker productivity, poor educational outcomes, and so forth. Thus, psychological research can inform public policies to improve approaches to these important social problems. The relationship of psychological science to public policy is often troubled, however, by misunderstandings about the role of science in the policy making process. Many scientists fear that their research results will be "misused" by others whose values differ from those of scientists. Thus, psychologists are reluctant to publish research results that can be used to support policies contrary to their own values and hesitate to ask research questions that can generate politically incorrect results. In this article, I argue that psychological science has a primary responsibility to ask dangerous questions and to report results honestly, without fear of their use; that research is not translated directly into public policies; and that psychological science should not be perverted either by fear of political consequences or by compromising truth in a quest for power. Three research examples are given to illustrate the different faces of temptation to pervert psychological science in a misguided hope that scientists' own values will be reflected in public policies.     

ISLAMIC VERDICTS IN HEALTH POLICY DISCOURSE: PORCINE‐BASED VACCINES AS A CASE STUDY

In this article, I apply a policy‐oriented applied Islamic bioethics lens to two verdicts on the permissibility of using vaccines with porcine components. I begin by reviewing the decrees and then proceed to describe how they were used by health policy stakeholders. Subsequently, My analysis will highlight aspects of the verdict's ethico‐legal arguments in order to illustrate salient legal concepts that must be accounted for when using Islamic verdicts as the basis for health policy. I will conclude with several suggestions for facilitating a more judicious use of verdicts in policy‐relevant discourse. My analysis is meant to contribute to the dialogue between science and religion, and aims to further efforts at developing health policies that value health while accommodating religious values. In the encounter between the Islamic tradition and global public health, a multidisciplinary dialogue, where Islamic legists become aware of the health policy implications of their ethico‐legal pronouncements, and where health policy actors gain a literate understanding of Islamic ethico‐legal theory, will lead to verdicts that better meet the needs of patients, health workers, and religious leaders.     

The Impact of Economic Globalisation on Health

The analysis of the impact of economic globalisation on health depends on how it is defined and should consider how it shapes both health and health policies. I first discuss the ways in which economic globalisation can and has been defined and then why it is important to analyse its impact both in terms of health and health policies. I then explore the ways in which economic globalisation influences health and health policies and how this relates to equity, social justice, and the role of values and social rights in societies. Finally, I argue that the process of economic globalisation provides a common challenge for all health systems across the globe and requires a broader debate on values, accountability, and policy approaches.     

程序公正、不确定性对公共政策可接受性的影响:情感信任、认知信任的中介作用

为了研究程序公正、不确定性与公共政策可接受性之间的关系,并进一步考察情感信任和认知信任在其中的中介效应,本研究选取公共政策领域,通过问卷调查的方法随机选取510名北京市民进行研究。研究发现,程序公正与公共政策可接受性正相关,不确定性与公共政策可接受性负相关,情感信任中介程序公正与公共政策可接受性,并对不确定性与公共政策可接受性之间有遮掩效应,而认知信任不存在显著的中介作用。     

Public knowledge,attitudes, and beliefs about homeless people: Evidence for compassion fatigue?

Media reports suggest that the public is becoming impatient with the homeless—that so-called “compassion fatigue” has gripped the nation. This characterization of public sentiment could have important policy consequences—restrictive measures can be justified by growing public impatience, and progressive housing policies seem infeasible within a hostile climate of opinion. But evidence to support the compassion fatigue notion is anecdotal. We examine the issue by tracking the results of public opinion polls and by reporting detailed evidence from a nationwide random-digit dial telephone survey (N=1,507) concerning knowledge attitudes and beliefs about homeless people. To be sure, the public sees homelessness as an undesirable social problem and wants something done about it. However, although the homeless are clearly stigmatized, there is little evidence to suggest that the public has lost compassion and is unwilling to support policies to help homeless people.     

Developmental psychology and public policy: progress and prospects

This article outlines a framework for developmentally oriented policy research. Drawing from U. Bronfenbrenner's (1995) dynamic developmental systems theory, the authors suggest ways in which the key tenets of process, persons, context, and time can inform policy research in developmental psychology and can be used to support a causal interpretation of the results of those analyses. Conceptualizing public policies from a dynamic developmental systems perspective has a variety of implications for future research, and this article considers some of these implications.     

公共政策制定程序对政策可接受性的影响

根据程序公正理论提出公共政策制定程序与公众对政策的可接受性的关系问题。研究一通过访谈不同领域的学者,初步揭示了公共政策及其制定程序存在的问题——对公共问题不敏感,解决问题的措施成效低。研究二用问卷调查公众对一个制定中的公共政策的态度,恰与政策制定者的愿望相反,公众并不认可政府解决问题的设想,也不认同政府举行的听证会的结果。研究三设计了一个非等组前后测准实验,在两个互联网站的电子公告板上比较根据不同的公共政策制定程序的政策的可接受性。结果证明,制定政策时了解公众态度可增强政策的针对性,提高解决问题措施的成效和可接受性     

How Politicians’ Reelection Efforts Can Reduce Public Trust,Electoral Support,and Policy Approval

Politicians’ desire for reelection motivates them to be responsive to voters’ policy preferences. In the traditional view, voters choose between candidates based on their delivery of favorable outcomes such as ideologically appealing policies or a prospering economy. However, research in psychology shows that, in addition to outcomes, people care about procedural fairness and, particularly, impartial decision‐makers who make decisions without personal motives and interests. This, I argue, confronts politicians with a delicate task: politicians must present voters with favorable policy outcomes but without appearing as if they pursue these policies based on a personal, vote‐maximizing motive for reelection. In four survey experiments, I find support for this argument. Participants were significantly less inclined to trust and vote for politicians and support their policies when political decisions were described as motivated by reelection considerations than when no such motive was present. The findings advance our understanding of how citizens view political representation and have important implications for research on public opinion, legislative behavior, and democratic theory.     

The Public Policy Pedagogy of Corporate and Alternative News Media

This paper argues for seeing in-depth news coverage of political, social, and economic issues as “public policy pedagogy.” To develop my argument, I draw on Nancy Fraser’s democratic theory, which attends to social differences and does not assume that unity is a starting point or an end goal of public dialogue. Alongside the formation of “subaltern counterpublics” (Fraser), alternative media outlets sometimes develop. There, members of alternative publics debate their interests and strategize about how to be heard in wider, mass-mediated public arenas. I address the normative implications of this non-unitary, multiple-publics model for news journalism, analyzing how current conventions in mainstream news journalism (e.g., “balance” defined as “airing two extremes”) can restrict public debate and impoverish the public policy pedagogy on offer. I illustrate my arguments with a case study of media coverage of the creation and implementation of a social justice curriculum in British Columbia, Canada.     

行为社会政策：“助推”公共福利的实践与探索

行为社会政策是基于人的行为特点而设计, 使用“助推”作为政策工具来执行的社会政策。它是行为科学在社会政策范畴的应用, 其原理在于洞察人们做选择时的行为偏好, 以隐性且非明显经济刺激的方式谋求公众利益。从政策制定者的角度出发, 基于自愿性和信息性的统一, 可将行为社会政策中的助推策略分为增加策略、减少策略和转换策略; 三大策略被用于再住院率、儿童健康、社区养老、入学资助、就业问题、器官移植和精准扶贫等民生领域, 帮助人们做出更好的选择, 提高公共福利。作为一种新兴的方法和技术, 助推并非万能, 需要政策制定者对症下药、精确识别、权衡使用, 规避“行为官僚”, 才能真正实现国家治理现代化和社会利益最大化。     

程序公正与权威信任:公共政策可接受性机制

中国正处于深刻的社会转型和社会变迁时期,社会风险加剧。其中一个重要的表征就是群体性事件频发。事件的背后,反映出民众对公共政策的不认可,如果公共政策的制定和执行不能充分考虑民众的接受性,极有可能构成新的社会风险,威胁社会稳定。因此,如何有效地提高民众对公共政策的接受性已经成为我国亟需解决的重大问题。项目欲建立程序公正、结果宜人性和权威信任(认知信任和情感信任)对公共政策可接受性、政府满意度的影响模型,从而有效提升政策可接受性。拟在不同的公共政策情境中通过Scenario、实验室模拟实验和问卷调查,探明程序公正和结果宜人性对政策可接受性、政府满意度的交互作用机制,以及权威信任对此交互作用机制的边界效应,并在此基础上进一步分析认知信任和情感信任对于政策可接受性、政府满意度及其因子关系的调节作用。研究成果可用于提高民众对政策的满意度,为政府制定政策提供科学依据。     

The outlook for policy-making: An epistemological perspective

Improving the quality of public policy-making is a matter of great importance for nearly everyone. Significant improvements, however, require major (and unlikely?) changes in the epistemological foundations accepted by social inquirers—changes that make possible a conception of “policy” that can be used to achieve real world purposes reliably. A theory of knowledge adequate for that purpose is outlined, and some of its major implications for inquiry (and for policy-making) are explored very briefly.     

Sustainable development, engineering and multinational corporations: Ethical and public policy implications

This paper explores the concept of sustainable development and its ethical and public policy implications for engineering and multinational corporations. Sustainable development involves achieving objectives in three realms: ecological (sustainable scale), economic (efficient allocation) and social (just distribution). While movement toward a sustainable society is dependent upon satisfying all three objectives, questions of just distribution and other questions of equity are often left off the table or downplayed when engineers and corporate leaders consider sustainable development issues. Indeed, almost all the effort of engineers and engineering organizations on the issue of sustainable development has been focused on striking a balance between economic development and environmental protection. Similarly, corporate approaches rely on technological fixes to the challenges posed by sustainable development. While there have been some efforts aimed at incorporating environmental and social equity concepts into engineering codes of ethics, social concerns have been secondary to environmental issues. The incongruity between the ideal of sustainable development and the way in which it is typically characterized by the engineering and business communities has significant implications for engineering and public policy, engineering ethics, and the potential roles of engineers and multinational corporations as facilitators of a transition to a sustainable society. Presented at the Engineering Foundation Conference on “Ethics for Science and Engineering Based International Industries”, Durham, NC, USA, September 1997. An earlier version was presented at and appeared in the proceedings of the “1997 International Symposium on Technology and Society”, IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, June 1997. The author, an Assistant Prolessor of Multidisciplinary Studies, teaches in the Science, Technology and Society Program and is Director of the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program, a dual-degree program in engineering and humanities/social sciences.     

Symbolic Politics and the Prediction of Attitudes Toward Federal Regulation of Reduced‐Exposure Tobacco Products1

The present study relies on symbolic politics theory to predict public attitudes toward the federal regulation of conventional tobacco products (a familiar attitude object) and reduced‐exposure tobacco products (a relatively novel attitude object). We predicted that attitudes toward most forms of regulation would be more strongly influenced by symbolic beliefs about the role of government in society than by self‐interested concerns, with the exception of taxation. We predicted that the financial consequences of taxation policies would be less ambiguous for those who are affected, resulting in a stronger relationship between self‐interest and policy attitudes. The results strongly supported our hypotheses, suggesting a process by which symbolic beliefs and self‐interested concerns influence attitude formation. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

公共政策情境中行为习惯的形成机制与培养策略

引导社会成员重塑日常良好行为习惯是增强公共政策有效性的重要路径和切入点, 洞悉并把握行为习惯的形成机制对具体培养策略的制定和实施大有裨益。行为习惯是指通过高频重复的奖励习得, 在记忆中形成的情境与反应之间的内隐联结。作为一种特殊的内隐记忆系统, 行为习惯具有自动化、情境线索依赖性、对当前奖励低敏感性等特征。行为习惯的形成机制包含两个独立且共发的习得机制, 即联结习得机制和奖励习得机制。在日常良好行为习惯的形成初期, 目标引导着个体对行为价值的习得。在培养社会成员日常良好行为习惯的过程中, 应将情境线索的稳定性、高频行为的低认知重复以及奖励的合理设置, 作为公共政策助推社会成员养成日常良好行为习惯的三大核心策略。未来的研究方向应着力于加强习惯研究的学科视阈融合, 更新行为习惯领域的研究范式, 重置公共设施以提升有益行为的易达性, 以及引入商业模式以共促社会成员日常良好行为习惯的重塑。     

政策执行偏差情境下公众不公正感对集群行为的影响机制研究

摘 要：为探讨政策执行偏差情境下公众不公正感对公众集群行为的影响机制。采用问卷法对1756名社会公众进行调查,结果显示： （1）当局可责备性和愤怒情绪中介了公众不公正感对公众集群行为的影响。（2）公众不公正感还通过当局可责备性→愤怒情绪的中介链作用于公众的集群行为。     

The connection between macro and micro levels: states' spending for hospitals and their suicide rates

A trend analysis of states' spending for hospitals and their suicide rates in 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1984 showed that states' spending for hospitals was not directly related to their suicide rates until 1984. The analysis also showed that in 1984, states' spending for hospitals was not only directly and inversely related to their suicide rates, but also accounted for a 5% increase in their variance. Drawing on Durkheim's theory of social integration, the analysis took into account the effects of states' divorce rates, rates of population change, population density, and the economic level and racial composition of states' population. Following policy trends in health care more generally, the findings call attention to the wider implications of institutional norms of cost containment at all costs and states' suicide rates, and thus to the largely ignored connection between macro and micro levels.