2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Friday, April 4-8:00 am
21-2 EXPERIMENTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
Room Suite 13-150 on the 13th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Rick K. Wilson, Rice University
rkw@rice.edu
Paper The Conditional Effects of (Un)Responsiveness on Presidential
Approval
This paper presents results from an original experiment designed
to test a theory of the conditional effects of (un)responsiveness on
presidential approval. The analysis shows that factors such as issue
domain and individual-level variables matter.
Bas W. van Doorn, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
vandoorn@umn.edu
Paper Exploring the External Validity of Treatments in Survey
Experiments
Survey experiments help establish causality, but scholars do not
know how closely they mimic or are affected by natural phenomena.
We find that treatments in survey experiments may be too strong
relative to the real world events they seek to emulate.
Jason Barabas, Florida State University
jason.barabas@fsu.edu
Jennifer Jerit, Florida State University
jjerit@fsu.edu
Paper Anchoring on the Opposition
A national experiment manipulates the accessibility of attitudes
toward the favored party vs. attitudes toward the opposition
party. Disagreement with one's own party is also manipulated.
Implications for partisan defense are discussed.
Eric William Groenendyk, University of Michigan
egroenen@umich.edu
Paper Dynamic Process Tracing Methodologies
We describe dynamic process tracing and discuss a a new software
environment designed to support decision making experiments.
David P. Redlawsk, University of Iowa
david-redlawsk@uiowa.edu
Richard R. Lau, Rugters University
ricklau@rci.rutgers.edu
Disc. John Transue, University of Illinois, Springfield
jtran8@uis.edu
21-3 CANDIDATE EVALUATION PROCESSES
Room Suite 8-150 on the 8th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Victor C. Ottati, Loyola University, Chicago
vottati@luc.edu
Paper Attitude Strength in Candidate Evaluations
This work compares the role of two moderators (accessibility
and uncertainty) in candidate evaluations. Using data from an
experiment, I show that the appropriate moderator depends on the
attitude being used, issue positions or trait perceptions.
David A. M. Peterson, Texas A&M University
dave@polisci.tamu.edu
Paper Image and Candidate Evaluation
Under low cognitive load, political experts correct for the biasing
influence of candidate appearance (primarily correcting for physical
unattractiveness). This can produce a reversal of the physical
attractiveness effect on candidate evaluation.
Victor C. Ottati, Loyola University, Chicago
vottati@luc.edu
William Hart, University of Florida
willhart@ufl.edu
Nathaniel D. Krumdick, Loyola University, Chicago
nkrumdi@luc.edu
Paper
Paper
Disc.
Cues and Candidates in Canada: Evidence from a 2007 National
Experiment
We explore how party cues operate in a system where citizens hold
weaker partisan attachments and where there is more variation in
the reputation of parties. We address these questions using data
generated from an experiment in Canada in 2007.
Jennifer L. Merolla, Claremont Graduate University
jennifer.merolla@cgu.edu
Laura B. Stephenson, University of Western Ontario
lstephe8@uwo.ca
Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, University of California, Davis
ejzech@ucdavis.edu
Democrats are Still Democrats: Partisan Attribution in
Nonpartisan Elections
I ask whether voters in a nonpartisan campaign environment
recast the election in partisan terms. Using an experimental
design, I examine whether certain types of voters in a nonpartisan
environment behave as if they were in a partisan environment.
Beth Miller, University of Missouri, Kansas City
millerel@umkc.edu
Todd K. Hartman, Stony Brook University
thartman@ic.sunysb.edu
22-7 INFORMATION AND VOTING
Room UEH 411 on the 4th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Andrew John Healy, Loyola Marymount University
ahealy@lmu.edu
Paper Political Information and Electoral Choice: Are More and Less
Informed Citizens Distinguishable
Do more and less informed citizens make different electoral choices,
all else equal This study builds on and extends Bartels (1996)
AJPS.
Jay Kent Dow, University of Missouri
dowj@missouri.edu
Paper Issue Opinions and Partisan Ambivalence
What are the sources of ambivalence toward parties While the role
of values and one's need for cognition has been examined, up to this
point little attention has been paid how one's issue opinions might
influence partisan ambivalence.
Judd R. Thornton, Michigan State University
thornt97@msu.edu
Paper Are Voters Irrational THE UNEDUCATED AND PARTISAN
ONES ARE
Rural voters have systematically punished the incumbent
presidential party for extreme weather in an election year. Only
voters who are ideologically extreme and voters who did not attend
college display this irrational behavior.
Andrew John Healy, Loyola Marymount University
ahealy@lmu.edu
Paper Economic Voting and Information
This paper uses an economic panel survey to test, and finds
support for, the hypothesis that voters with higher levels of
information about politics are better able to choose according to
their prospective economic interests.
Joan Serra, University of Chicago
jserra@uchicago.edu
Disc. Laura Stoker, University of California, Berkeley
stoker@socrates.berkeley.edu
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