Brian Robert Calfano
Biographic Data
| ID | 3876964 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian Robert Calfano |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian Robert |
| FAMILY NAME | Calfano |
| SIGNATURE | CALFANO B R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Missouri State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2486-2433 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 58 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 370 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
News of Converging Crises: Cable Coverage of Race and Covid Stories
Drawing on theories covering media differentiation, delegitimating, and journalistic professionalism, we show FOX is substantially more likely than CNN or MSNBC to increase its coverage frequency of race stories in response to topical coverage by its competitors. CNN reduces its coverage frequency of these race stories in response to FOX (and MSNBC follows this same general pattern). By contrast, all three networks reinforce each other’s COVID co…
Religion Is Sometimes Raced: Christian Nationalism as In-Group Protection
Popular narratives suggest that the effects of Christian nationalism should be more heavily concentrated among white Americans. The academic literature on Christian nationalism largely reflects this take, often asserting that it is effectively white Christian nationalism. We question such pronouncements, as they have come without systematic analysis across the broad range of issue areas needed to justify subgroup segmentations. Utilizing national…
Fellowship in the Fiery Furnace: A Research Note on How Christian Persecution Beliefs Transcend Racial Divides
This study aims to investigate the relationship between Christian persecution beliefs (CPBs) and race. Existing CPB research has asserted that CPBs constitute a socially appropriate tool to signal White advocacy, but much of this research has centered on White respondents. Utilizing an original dataset with oversamples of Black and Latino Christians, we demonstrate that Black Christians are most likely to adopt CPBs (not White Christians); that t…
Mind the (Collaborative) Gap: How the Public Symbolically Rewards and Punishes Policy Actors for Their Collaborative Choices
This article explores how informing residents about the resolution of collaborative gaps by leading government agencies—specifically gaps with civil‐society organizations—affects public perceptions. While recent research demonstrates that knowledge of collaboration with civil society groups can impact public trust in policy actors, the focus has been on the rewards of closing gaps (the collaborative reward hypothesis), with scant attention to the…
Manifesting symbolic representation through collaborative policymaking
Collaboration is a widely employed strategy for addressing “wicked” policy problems. While scholars have long recognized that the organizational composition of collaborative forums can have a dramatic impact on the efficacy and equity of associated forum outputs, little is known about whether such composition impacts the manner in which everyday citizens perceive forum processes and/or participating organizations. In this article, we bridge and e…
The Variable “Catholic” Influence on US Presidential and Abortion Politics
We demonstrate that, in comparison to religious groups showing reliable, contemporary voting tendencies (e.g., white evangelical Protestants voting Republican, Jews and Muslims voting Democratic), Roman Catholics show far less consistency in supporting one major party over the other. After reviewing relevant literature Catholic public political preferences and behavior, we delve into a basic overview of the history of the Catholic Church in the U…
Electoral Crisis Communications: Combatting Disinformation & the Contest for Electoral Legitimacy
In the age of weaponized disinformation, the question for democracies is not merely who will win an election, but whether the outcome will be accepted as legitimate. To assess the challenge faced by U.S. electoral officials in convincing the public of the security of election procedure we conducted a survey experiment on a national sample of 4987 U.S. adults in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Subjects were exposed to claims about voter fraud as…
Coverage Competence via Collaboration: Overcoming Political Journalism Challenges in Local Television
Recent national media surveys point to relatively high levels of public trust in local political reporting. The problem, however, is that challenges with reporter training and experience mean that local television is not as equipped as it might be to provide quality political coverage. We assess how professional journalists and college students majoring in political science or journalism view their reporting competences. We find mixed results, in…
Bad Impressions: How Journalists as “Storytellers” Diminish Public Confidence in Media
A somewhat common journalistic branding effort is use of the cue “storyteller.” To better understand the impression the “storyteller” brand leaves, we fielded a survey-embedded experiment from a national sample of 2,133 US adults. The randomly assigned treatment credits a news article on a local political matter to a journalist using the “storyteller” brand. Drawing on media bias survey questions from the literature and sentiment analysis, we fin…
Religion Applied to Government: Navigating Competing and Complementary Spheres of Power
Our paper offers two broad areas of focus for those looking to engage in political advocacy informed by the insights of religious belief and practice. The first has to do with the ends of politics: what is politics for and what does it pursue? Religious traditions offer key guidance over these fundamental questions. The second regards the issues of where politics happens, who participates, and what participation looks like. These questions defy s…
Nothing funnier than the news: Assessing Johnny Carson's comedic effect, past and present
Exploring the Public Effects of Religious Communication on Politics
Though not all people are religious believers, religion has played important historic roles in developing political systems, parties, and policies—affecting believers and nonbelievers alike. This is particularly true in the United States, where scholars have devoted considerable attention to a variety of political phenomena at the intersection of religious belief and identity, including social movements, voting behavior, public opinion, and publi…
Nazita Lajevardi’s: Outsiders at Home: The Politics of American Islamophobia
This paper aims to understand the structure of actors involved in the increase of the number of lawyers in Korea. For this research, the Canadian Scholar’s Policy Network Approach and the Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Concept were used. The case analysis focuses on the policy decisions related to the number of people passing the bar examination. This paper reviewed the policy debates, initiatives and actions of actors concerned before and during …
Click to Count: The Effects of Nonpartisan Cue Endorsements in Selecting Political Information
The endorser effects literature expects the public to be swayed by cues offered by trusted or liked sources. A useful question for political marketing scholars is whether inherently nonpartisan cues impact public willingness to access nonpartisan political information. We use two social media-based field experiments and two survey-embedded experiments to test whether a randomly assigned visual marketing endorsement of political information by a k…
The Impact of Subjective Social Position on Public Evaluations of Police
Objective We examine factors that explain differences in assessment of police performance among whites, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos, and utilize a subjective social position framework to better understand variation in poor police evaluations. The framework combines previously disparate explanations in the literature. Method Logit models assess 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post‐Election Survey data augmented by Census, FBI crime stati…
Bringing People Together: Improving Intergroup Relations via Group Identity Cues
Many U.S. cities pursue a “human relations” strategy in response to racial and ethnic group conflict. Reflective of Common Ingroup Identity theory, human relations practitioners emphasize a superordinate community identity among residents from different groups for the purpose of “bringing people together” in an effort to improve intergroup relations. Practitioners also encourage intergroup contact to promote positive change in attitudes. Herein, …
Evaluating Resistance toward Muslim American Political Integration
Muslims in the United States are often constructed as anti-American and are perceived to have little engagement with politics. Moreover, Arab and Muslim identity is often conflated in the public mind. In this note, we introduce results from a randomized survey experiment conducted in three states with varying Muslim populations—Ohio, California, and Michigan—to assess how trustworthy respondents rate a local community leader calling for unity whe…
From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity, by Michelle Margolis
Michelle Margolis’ book is receiving resounding positive reviews for its willingness to throw down the gauntlet and say what many have at least pondered as the so-called “God gap” widened: religion alone can’t be driving the degree of party sorting by persons with (and without) a religious identity. For decades, scholars had religion and its “3 Bs” (i.e., believing, behaving, and belonging) in the driver’s seat as the determinant of partisan and …
Power of Suggestion? Leadership Signals, Politics, Religion, and Women's Support for the Disadvantaged
We assess the role of social signals about the appropriateness of women in leadership roles in either the political or religious domain. The relevant literature leads to expectations of a relatively clear effect on women's efficacy levels when encountering social suggestions that women's skills are better used in other ways. However, less certain is whether encouraging women away from leadership in religious organizations impacts their sense of e…
Government-Corroborated Conspiracies: Motivating Response to (and Belief in) a Coordinated Crime
Accusations of conspiracy are nothing new in American politics, but examples in which the government—usually cast as a key player in conspiracy theories—goes on record to corroborate that a conspiracy occurred are rare. I leveraged an experiment that randomly exposes both college-student and general-public subject pools to information about the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassination report of a probable conspiracy in the assassination of Pr…
A “Ferguson Effect” on 2016 Presidential Vote Preference? Findings from a Framing Experiment Examining “Shy Voters” and Cues Related to Policing and Social Unrest
Objectives This study explored the sociopolitical influence of controversies related to policing and “law and order” during the 2016 presidential campaign. Following incidences of social unrest sparked by lethal confrontations between police officers and people of color, Donald Trump condemned protesters and expressed unwavering support for the police, while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders expressed empathy with communities of color and called…
Muslims, Identity, and American Politics
Calfano provides an examination of the pressures faced by Muslims, often considered political and social outsiders in western nations, especially in the United States. Identity is a complex concept, especially when considering the role that group attachments play in affecting how one sees her/his role in the political environment of their country of residence. Perhaps the greatest tension in this regard is felt by those who are often considered o…
Phoning It In: Overcoming Implementation Challenges in Field-Experiment Partnerships
The use of field experiments in political science has become extensive, but the promise of conducting a randomized intervention in a “real world” setting also raises perils for researchers. Partnering with organizations to deliver a randomized intervention may be a cost effective route to data collection, but a long-distance partnership presents certain challenges. In particular, the researcher needs to be especially vigilant about treatment appl…
The Influence of Institutional Salience on Political Attitudes and Activism among Catholic Priests in the United States
What motivates clergy political attitudes and behavior? We investigate this using a questions-as-treatment randomized experiment focusing on Roman Catholic priests in the United States. Our results suggest substantial utility in using a question frame referencing the distinct institutional expectations that clergy regularly confront. Specifically, when randomly primed to consider the expectations of institutional reference groups, clergy exhibit …
Trumped up challenges: Limitations, opportunities, and the future of political research on Muslim Americans
With the election of Donald J. Trump as president, Muslim Americans may face the most pronounced threat to their collective political well-being in history. Unfortunately, while scholars have generated insights into the dynamics that affect members of this very diverse community in U.S. politics, assessment of Muslim Americans lags other religious and ethnic groups in terms of data and hypothesis testing. In this essay, we review the basic politi…
God Talk: Religious Cues and Electoral Support
It was revealed in 2006 that Republican candidates employ a type of religious code in their political speeches. Their intention is to cue the support of religiously conservative voters without alienating other voters who may not share the same social issue agenda. The authors assess the efficacy of this GOP Code on the support of voters in specific religious traditions in an experimental setting. As expected, the code proves to be an effective cu…
Religious Value Priming, Threat, and Political Tolerance
The exploration of the religious underpinnings of intolerance has long focused on the effects of religious behaviors and beliefs, but has ignored a variety of important facets of the religious experience that should bear on tolerance judgments: elite communication, religious values about how the world should be ordered, and social networks in churches. We focus on the communication of religious values and argue specifically that values should aff…
American Muslim Investment in Civil Society: Political Discussion, Disagreement, and Tolerance
Using data from a national survey of 465 American Muslims conducted just after the 2008 election season, the authors assess whether American Muslims are invested in the practices (political discussion, especially across lines of difference) and norms (tolerance) that many theorists suggest are crucial to the maintenance of liberal democracy. The authors find that American Muslims tend to be intolerant of acts against religion. The authors’ explan…
Choosing Constituent Cues: Reference Group Influence on Clergy Political Speech
Objective. Though constituent reference groups have been shown to impact clergy political behavior, studies have largely cast group influence as a fixed effect. In an update of how specific constituent groups may affect clergy political speech, I assess whether clergy intentionally select cues from specific constituencies in determining whether to sermonize on an issue of political controversy. Method. Data were collected from a 2006 survey of cl…
Strategically Prophetic Priests: An Analysis of Competing Principal Influence on Clergy Political Action
We assess clergy political activism dynamics using data from a national survey of Roman Catholic priests. Like their elite counterparts in interest groups and other secular political institutions, clergy encounter expectations and demands from competing principals when determining how to publicly act on key political issues. Building on insights from decades of clergy politics scholarship, we leverage new perspectives of principal-based influence…
Divine Intervention? The Influence of Religious Value Communication on U.S. Intervention Policy
Not in His Image: The Moderating Effect of Gender on Religious Appeals
Religious appeals have been part and parcel of campaign strategy for decades. Most often, however, these appeals to have come from men, but little is known about howwomenwould fare using religious appeals on the campaign trail. To remedy this, we used an experimental design to examine voter reaction to religious appeals from a female and a male candidate competing for an open United States Senate seat. We find that women's use of religious appeal…
The Deliberative Pulpit? The Democratic Norms and Practices of the PCUSA
In contrast to typical approaches that view religion as problematic or benign, thicker conceptions of religion's place in promoting and sustaining democratic politics are possible. This includes religious organizations modeling democratic practices and engaging in debate on common terms. We initiate this program of inquiry with data from a survey of Presbyterian Church, USA clergy gathered during the late summer and fall of 2009. We asked explici…
Justification Not by Faith Alone: Clergy Generating Trust and Certainty by Revealing Thought
While our intuition is that religious elites influence the political behavior of their audiences, just how that influence takes place is essentially unknown. Among many possible mechanisms, we investigate a new one: the effects of the decision-making process information that is included in elite statements. We believe that “process cues” paralleling those preferred by respondents bolster trust in the source and augment the ability to form determi…
The Religious Dynamics of Decision Making on Gay Rights Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1993–2002
In recent decades, homosexuality has emerged as a truly national political issue. As a result, the U.S. Congress is increasingly called upon to consider and set policy on an array of issues related to the status of gay men and lesbians. This article investigates legislator decision making pertaining to gay issues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Specifically, we examine the effect of several indicators on legislator support for progressive g…
Field Experimental Designs for the Study of Media Effects
Field experimentation is a promising but seldom used method for studying the effects of media messages on political attitudes and behavior. The practical challenges of conducting media experiments in real-world settings often come down to securing cooperation from research partners, such as political campaigns. To do so, researchers must be prepared to adapt their experimental designs to satisfy the constraints imposed by research partners and th…
Trumped up challenges: Limitations, opportunities, and the future of political research on Muslim Americans
With the election of Donald J. Trump as president, Muslim Americans may face the most pronounced threat to their collective political well-being in history. Unfortunately, while scholars have generated insights into the dynamics that affect members of this very diverse community in U.S. politics, assessment of Muslim Americans lags other religious and ethnic groups in terms of data and hypothesis testing. In this essay, we review the basic politi…
An Alan Keyes Effect? Examining Anti-Black Sentiment Among White Evangelicals
A “Ferguson Effect” on 2016 Presidential Vote Preference? Findings from a Framing Experiment Examining “Shy Voters” and Cues Related to Policing and Social Unrest
Objectives This study explored the sociopolitical influence of controversies related to policing and “law and order” during the 2016 presidential campaign. Following incidences of social unrest sparked by lethal confrontations between police officers and people of color, Donald Trump condemned protesters and expressed unwavering support for the police, while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders expressed empathy with communities of color and called…
Prophetic at Any Price? Clergy Political Behavior and Utility Maximization: Clergy Political Behavior and Utility Maximization
Objective. I examine the degree to which U.S. clergy might be considered utility maximizers in determining whether to undertake political behavior among their parishioners. Specifically, I investigate whether mainline Protestant clergy elect not to engage in political activities due to a general concern that their behavior might lead to a downturn in parishioner contributions. Methods. Six maximum likelihood models are employed to analyze survey …
The Power of Brand: Beyond Interest Group Influence in U.S. State Abortion Politics
In this article, I examine whether a constituency's political brand—defined here as the reputation that white evangelicals and Catholics have for “pro-life” abortion policy—influences the public abortion position taken by members in six U.S. state Houses of Representatives. At issue is whether constituent political brand functions as a non-interest group influence on state legislators. A fitting of the brand literature to the state politics domai…
Manifesting symbolic representation through collaborative policymaking
Collaboration is a widely employed strategy for addressing “wicked” policy problems. While scholars have long recognized that the organizational composition of collaborative forums can have a dramatic impact on the efficacy and equity of associated forum outputs, little is known about whether such composition impacts the manner in which everyday citizens perceive forum processes and/or participating organizations. In this article, we bridge and e…
The Impact of Subjective Social Position on Public Evaluations of Police
Objective We examine factors that explain differences in assessment of police performance among whites, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos, and utilize a subjective social position framework to better understand variation in poor police evaluations. The framework combines previously disparate explanations in the literature. Method Logit models assess 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post‐Election Survey data augmented by Census, FBI crime stati…
The Delegational Pulpit? Clergy Identifying as Congregational Political Representatives
While American clergy have been understood as political actors in some capacity, the precise understanding of their representation has been debated. Some argue that clergy may be seen as fidei defensor, representing a particular set of values and beliefs to the world—a trustee model. Others see the potential for clergy to advocate for the interests of local congregations embedded in particular communities—a delegate model. Neither approach has ha…
Evaluating Resistance toward Muslim American Political Integration
Muslims in the United States are often constructed as anti-American and are perceived to have little engagement with politics. Moreover, Arab and Muslim identity is often conflated in the public mind. In this note, we introduce results from a randomized survey experiment conducted in three states with varying Muslim populations—Ohio, California, and Michigan—to assess how trustworthy respondents rate a local community leader calling for unity whe…
The Influence of Institutional Salience on Political Attitudes and Activism among Catholic Priests in the United States
What motivates clergy political attitudes and behavior? We investigate this using a questions-as-treatment randomized experiment focusing on Roman Catholic priests in the United States. Our results suggest substantial utility in using a question frame referencing the distinct institutional expectations that clergy regularly confront. Specifically, when randomly primed to consider the expectations of institutional reference groups, clergy exhibit …
Remembering to Ask the Boss: Priming and the Dynamics of Priest Reliance on Bishop Cues
Though the degree of influence that US bishops have over Catholic parishioners is inconsistent, the institutional power bishops have over parish priests suggests that bishops enjoy reliable influence over their local subordinates. However, there are an array of competing influences over parish priests that, when made salient, might make priest reliance on bishop instructions for political behavior less reliable. Using data from the first ever sur…
Who and What Affects the First Estate? An Analysis of Clergy Attitudes on Cultural and Economic Issues
Since the 1980s, scholars have come to appreciate the role clergy have in shaping the political attitudes and behaviour of the faithful. Through their leadership in self-selecting religious contexts, they are well positioned to translate religious values into political values. Given their potential as opinion leaders, this study investigates the dynamics of clergy opinions. Focusing on clergy in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, it as…
A decision theory of clergy political behavior
Studies of clergy political behavior have used one of two empirical lenses to explain clergy actions-ideology and contextual influences. The first lens generally supposes that clergy behave according to their sincerely held preferences; the second takes personal ideology into account, but suggests that clergy are also subject to influence from the environment in which they serve. While both approaches have received adequate attention, there has b…
The Status of Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East: Does Regime Type Make a Difference
The collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War have been accompanied by the spread of democracy, advancement in human rights, and the introduction of market reforms throughout the world. The Middle East has been no exception to this trend. There, in response to mounting economic crises and domestic pressures, several governments introduced democratic and economic reforms. This article investigates the progress that Middle East states have …
Of Denominations and Districts: Examining the Influence of "Pro-life" Denominational Communities on State Representatives
Journal Article Of Denominations and Districts: Examining the Influence of “Pro-life” Denominational Communities on State Representatives Get access Brian Robert Calfano Brian Robert Calfano doctoral student, teaching fellow (political science), and assistant academic advisor (pre-law program) University of North Texas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Church and State, Volume 48, Issue 1, Winter …
The Religious Dynamics of Decision Making on Gay Rights Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1993–2002
In recent decades, homosexuality has emerged as a truly national political issue. As a result, the U.S. Congress is increasingly called upon to consider and set policy on an array of issues related to the status of gay men and lesbians. This article investigates legislator decision making pertaining to gay issues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Specifically, we examine the effect of several indicators on legislator support for progressive g…
Transmitting Reform? Assessing New Media Influence on Political Rights in the Middle East
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region presents a challenge for political liberalization scholars.1 Although endowed with considerable natural resources and an educated elite, the MENA regi
Determining Democracy in the Organization of the Islamic Conference
Objectives. We determine the conditions that account for change in the realized level of political rights and civil liberties within the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Methods. We use ordered logit to assess the impact of religious pluralism and fragmentation and related controls on changes in Freedom House Political Rights and Civil Liberties scores at five‐year intervals between 1976 and 2004. Results. Findings suggest that the p…
Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite by D. Michael Lindsay
Journal Article Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite by D. Michael Lindsay Get access Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite by D. Michael Lindsay. New York, Oxford University Press, 2007. 352 pp. $24.95. Brian Robert Calfano Brian Robert Calfano Missouri State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume …
The Status of Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East: Does Regime Type Make a Difference
The collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War have been accompanied by the spread of democracy, advancement in human rights, and the introduction of market reforms throughout the world. The Middle East has been no exception to this trend. There, in response to mounting economic crises and domestic pressures, several governments introduced democratic and economic reforms. This article investigates the progress that Middle East states have …
Choosing Constituent Cues: Reference Group Influence on Clergy Political Speech
Objective. Though constituent reference groups have been shown to impact clergy political behavior, studies have largely cast group influence as a fixed effect. In an update of how specific constituent groups may affect clergy political speech, I assess whether clergy intentionally select cues from specific constituencies in determining whether to sermonize on an issue of political controversy. Method. Data were collected from a 2006 survey of cl…
God Talk: Religious Cues and Electoral Support
It was revealed in 2006 that Republican candidates employ a type of religious code in their political speeches. Their intention is to cue the support of religiously conservative voters without alienating other voters who may not share the same social issue agenda. The authors assess the efficacy of this GOP Code on the support of voters in specific religious traditions in an experimental setting. As expected, the code proves to be an effective cu…
Justification Not by Faith Alone: Clergy Generating Trust and Certainty by Revealing Thought
While our intuition is that religious elites influence the political behavior of their audiences, just how that influence takes place is essentially unknown. Among many possible mechanisms, we investigate a new one: the effects of the decision-making process information that is included in elite statements. We believe that “process cues” paralleling those preferred by respondents bolster trust in the source and augment the ability to form determi…
Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right
Dionne's book is an examination of the premise that religious believers in the United States, and evangelicals in particular, have grown tired of the attempts made by Republicans and some of their own leaders (most notably Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and the late Jerry Falwell) to define faith's role in politics as pertaining to a limited set of “moral” issues, including abortion and gay marriage. The author also spends considerable time establi…
A decision theory of clergy political behavior
Studies of clergy political behavior have used one of two empirical lenses to explain clergy actions-ideology and contextual influences. The first lens generally supposes that clergy behave according to their sincerely held preferences; the second takes personal ideology into account, but suggests that clergy are also subject to influence from the environment in which they serve. While both approaches have received adequate attention, there has b…
Prophetic at Any Price? Clergy Political Behavior and Utility Maximization: Clergy Political Behavior and Utility Maximization
Objective. I examine the degree to which U.S. clergy might be considered utility maximizers in determining whether to undertake political behavior among their parishioners. Specifically, I investigate whether mainline Protestant clergy elect not to engage in political activities due to a general concern that their behavior might lead to a downturn in parishioner contributions. Methods. Six maximum likelihood models are employed to analyze survey …
The Power of Brand: Beyond Interest Group Influence in U.S. State Abortion Politics
In this article, I examine whether a constituency's political brand—defined here as the reputation that white evangelicals and Catholics have for “pro-life” abortion policy—influences the public abortion position taken by members in six U.S. state Houses of Representatives. At issue is whether constituent political brand functions as a non-interest group influence on state legislators. A fitting of the brand literature to the state politics domai…
An Alan Keyes Effect? Examining Anti-Black Sentiment Among White Evangelicals
Not in His Image: The Moderating Effect of Gender on Religious Appeals
Religious appeals have been part and parcel of campaign strategy for decades. Most often, however, these appeals to have come from men, but little is known about howwomenwould fare using religious appeals on the campaign trail. To remedy this, we used an experimental design to examine voter reaction to religious appeals from a female and a male candidate competing for an open United States Senate seat. We find that women's use of religious appeal…
Divine Intervention? The Influence of Religious Value Communication on U.S. Intervention Policy
American Muslim Investment in Civil Society: Political Discussion, Disagreement, and Tolerance
Using data from a national survey of 465 American Muslims conducted just after the 2008 election season, the authors assess whether American Muslims are invested in the practices (political discussion, especially across lines of difference) and norms (tolerance) that many theorists suggest are crucial to the maintenance of liberal democracy. The authors find that American Muslims tend to be intolerant of acts against religion. The authors’ explan…
The Deliberative Pulpit? The Democratic Norms and Practices of the PCUSA
In contrast to typical approaches that view religion as problematic or benign, thicker conceptions of religion's place in promoting and sustaining democratic politics are possible. This includes religious organizations modeling democratic practices and engaging in debate on common terms. We initiate this program of inquiry with data from a survey of Presbyterian Church, USA clergy gathered during the late summer and fall of 2009. We asked explici…
Successful and Less Successful Interventions: Stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan
The US troop surge and awakening movements are the two factors most often associated with the decrease of violence in Iraq after 2006. However, these policies, including a distinction between the Anbar Awakening and later Sons of Iraq (SOI) program, did not occur simultaneously. To date, it also has not been made clear whether the surge, Anbar Awakening, and/or SOI deserve credit as the intervention responsible for improving security conditions i…
God Save This “Broken” Land: The Efficacy of Closed-Circuit Voter Targeting in a U.K. Election
Recent research in the United States has found candidates for elected office are able to use a rhetorical form of closed-circuit communication with evangelical Protestants — “God Talk” — that communicates valuable political information without alerting other constituencies. Close observation of the 2010 parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom (U.K.) uncovered what appeared to be a form of God Talk in use by David Cameron and the Conservativ…
Religious Value Priming, Threat, and Political Tolerance
The exploration of the religious underpinnings of intolerance has long focused on the effects of religious behaviors and beliefs, but has ignored a variety of important facets of the religious experience that should bear on tolerance judgments: elite communication, religious values about how the world should be ordered, and social networks in churches. We focus on the communication of religious values and argue specifically that values should aff…
Mitigating Mormonism: Overcoming Religious Identity Challenges with Targeted Appeals
A persistent challenge for minority candidates is mitigating negative effects attributed to their unpopular group identity. This was precisely the case for Mitt Romney, a Mormon, as he sought and captured the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. We draw on existing public opinion data about the tepid reaction to Romney's Mormonism from within Republican ranks. Then, we review our own experimental data to examine a potential mitigation strateg…
Who and What Affects the First Estate? An Analysis of Clergy Attitudes on Cultural and Economic Issues
Since the 1980s, scholars have come to appreciate the role clergy have in shaping the political attitudes and behaviour of the faithful. Through their leadership in self-selecting religious contexts, they are well positioned to translate religious values into political values. Given their potential as opinion leaders, this study investigates the dynamics of clergy opinions. Focusing on clergy in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, it as…
Field Experimental Designs for the Study of Media Effects
Field experimentation is a promising but seldom used method for studying the effects of media messages on political attitudes and behavior. The practical challenges of conducting media experiments in real-world settings often come down to securing cooperation from research partners, such as political campaigns. To do so, researchers must be prepared to adapt their experimental designs to satisfy the constraints imposed by research partners and th…
Assessing Clergy Attitudes: Ideology and Institutional Superiors
It is difficult to overstate the centrality of the Catholic Church in Irish society. In the eighteenth century, Catholicism came to provide the raw materials of Irish nationalism in the face of British colonial oppression. Protestantism, on the other hand, came to represent a national connection with Britain. When the Republic of Ireland emerged as a fully independent state in 1937, the Catholic Church and Catholic values were enshrined in the ne…
Political science (52 works) · Law (49 works) · Politics (46 works) · Sociology (45 works) · Psychology (33 works) · Social Psychology (27 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (26 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (25 works) · Law (24 works) · Social Psychology (15 works)