2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Saturday, April 5-2:45 pm
Paper
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Campaign Finance: Timing and Its Torments
Who gives money early in a congressional election cycle How
much is given, and to which types of candidates We use new
data, including a more precise categorization of interest groups, to
examine these questions.
Eric Michael McGhee, Public Policy Institute of California
mcghee@ppic.org
Raymond J. La Raja, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
laraja@polsci.umass.edu
Transforming Individual Contributions: Resources to
Campaign Contributions
Hypothesizing candidates use charity networks to transmit
information and contribution requests, results show individual
contributions rise with charity activity, but political interest limits
the use of non-political networks for political purposes.
R. Michael Alvarez, California Institute of Technology
rma@hss.caltech.edu
Morgan H. Llewellyn, California Institute of Technology
llewell@hss.caltech.edu
What Motivates Volunteers: Field and Lab Experiments
We conduct lab and field experiments to uncover the motivation of
people who volunteer. Our experiments focus on understanding the
relative importance of altruism and reputation in inducing donations
of labor.
Sera Linardi, California Institute of Technology
slinardi@hss.caltech.edu
Margaret Anne McConnell, California Institute of Technology
mmcconnell@hss.caltech.edu
David Darmofal, University of South Carolina
darmofal@gwm.sc.edu
25-23 INFORMATION AND UNCERTAINTY IN PUBLIC
OPINION
Room Salon 5 on the 3rd Floor, Sat at 2:45 pm
Chair Susan J. Tabrizi, Wells College
stabrizi@wells.edu
Paper Social Networks and Correct Voting: Linking Discussion to
Good Decisions
Do social networks promote “correct” voting Using the 2000
ANES, we examine the interplay between personal resources and
networks, noting the factors that facilitate/inhibit consistency
between voters’ choices and their self-stated evaluations.
Anand Edward Sokhey, Ohio State University
sokhey.2@osu.edu
Scott D. McClurg, Southern Illinois University
mcclurg@siu.edu
Paper Sophisticated Response: The Contingency of Elite Opinion
Leadership
A nationally representative election survey allows me to disentangle
the persuasive effects of changing arguments in political messages,
while holding the partisan source constant, thus illuminating cuebased
versus message-based opinion change.
Rune Slothuus, Aarhus University
slothuus@ps.au.dk
Paper Information and the Dynamics of Individual Level Consumer
Uncertainty
We theoretically develop the concept of "consumer uncertainty" and
develop a measure of it. Then, using cross-sectional surveys, we
explore its causal dynamics, focussing on the role of information in
reducing uncertainty.
Suzanna DeBoef, Pennsylvania State University
sdeboef@psu.edu
Paul M. Kellstedt, Texas A&M University
kellstedt@polisci.tamu.edu
Paper
Disc.
Priming Risk: Adding Uncertainty to Political Choices
We find that priming citizens to consider the risks involved in policy
choices significantly influences their preferences on those issues,
particularly among those who have thought less about the issue and
who are more averse to risk.
Brian F. Schaffner, American University
schaffne@american.edu
David L. Eckles, University of Georgia
deckles@uga.edu
Susan J. Tabrizi, Wells College
stabrizi@wells.edu
26-11 INNOVATIONS IN LOCAL TURNOUT RESEARCH
Room PDR 16 on the 5th Floor, Sat at 2:45 pm
Chair Hahrie Han, Wellesley College
hhan@post.harvard.edu
Paper Billboard Advertising and Voter Mobilization: A Randomized
Field Experiment
This study reports the results from a randomized field experiment
to test the effects of billboard advertising on voter turnout in local
elections.
Costas Panagopoulos, Fordham University &Yale University
costas.panagopoulos@yale.edu
Shang E. Ha, Yale University
shang.ha@yale.edu
Paper Residential Mobility and Political Participation: A
Reassessment
How does residential mobility affect political participation Panel
data supports the hypothesis that the effects of residential mobility
are mediated by the civic environment of the community to which
an individual moves.
Hector Luis Ortiz, Syracuse University
heortiz@syr.edu
Paper Katrina's Voters: Floods, Representation, and Social Context
We merge voting record data from 20 election cycles with GIS
coding of flood depth data and census data to examine the voting
behavior of registered voters in New Orleans before and after
Hurricane Katrina.
Betsy Sinclair, University of Chicago
betsy@uchicago.edu
Thad Hall, University of Utah
thadhall@gmail.com
Paper Who Votes When Turnout Across Elections in Massachusetts
This paper analyzes individual-level voter history data from the
entire Massachusetts statewide voter registry, 1997-2007 to consider
how turnout dynamics vary across community and type of election.
Ian Yohai, Harvard University
yohai@fas.harvard.edu
Daniel Schlozman, Harvard University
schlozm@fas.harvard.edu
Disc. Victoria Maria DeFrancesco Soto, Northwestern University
vmds@northwestern.edu
Hahrie Han, Wellesley College
hhan@post.harvard.edu
27-13 CHOOSING WHO TO LISTEN TO
Room UEH 409 on the 4th Floor, Sat at 2:45 pm
Chair Janet L. Donavan, Colorado State University
janet.donavan@colostate.edu
Paper “Voice to the People” Media Users’ Perspective on Selective
Exposure and Avoidance
This study assesses partisan exposure to consonant news sources,
motivations behind exposure, gratifications, and rationales behind
selective avoidance. 12, in-depth, and loosely structured interviews
with student partisan activists were conducted.
Magdalena E. Wojcieszak, Annenberg School for Communication
magdalena@asc.upenn.edu
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