Meital Balmas
Biographic Data
| ID | 941736 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meital Balmas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meital |
| FAMILY NAME | Balmas |
| SIGNATURE | BALMAS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9191-0488 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 240 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The illusion of political attitudes
Most polarization research focuses on conservatives and liberals, overlooking individuals holding cross-cutting attitude (CCA; mixed conservative and liberal views). Using survey data from two polarized countries, we distinguish between objective (actual) and subjective (perceived) CCA and examine their relationship with political news consumption. According to the results, many participants misperceived their attitude structure, seeing it as cro…
Effects of Framing Counter-Stereotypes as Surprising on Rethinking Prior Opinions About Outgroups
In this paper we address the unmet potential of counter-stereotypes (CS) by explicitly expressing feelings of surprise in media frames, to acknowledge the possible surprising effect attached to an encounter with a CS. Using a two-study survey-experiment (Nstudy 1 = 475, Nstudy 2 = 565) in the context of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, we demonstrate the moderating role of political ideology in the effect of exposure to surprise framing of CS …
Increasing Perceived Outgroup Heterogeneity Following Exposure to Extreme Violence
Exposure to political violence often drives individuals toward extreme attitudes and greater support for retaliatory policies, including heightened perceptions of outgroup homogeneity. In violent intergroup conflicts, such perceptions can be especially dangerous, as they may justify indiscriminate violence against the outgroup. The current research aims to address Jewish Israelis’ perceptions of Palestinians’ variability following the October 7 H…
The Warm War
The war between Russia and Ukraine is not only over territory or security but also over public opinion. Research has shown that national leaders can leverage their personality – in a general, positive sense – to arouse, in people living beyond their countries’ borders, emotions of empathy or pro-social reactions towards their countries’ citizens. We focus on the personality of Ukrainian President Zelensky and examine which of his personality trai…
Examining real-world legitimization of cross-party violence through two explanatory frameworks
Cross-party violence – violence between opposing partisans – is a growing concern worldwide. Understanding the predictors of the legitimization of violence against political opponents is thus becoming a vital goal. In this work, we propose two potential explanatory frameworks: affective polarization and low non-violent group efficacy. The first reflects an affective motivation to harm the out-party, while the latter reflects an instrumental motiv…
The reputational dividends of collaborating with a highly reputable agency
What reputational dividends in the media, if any, do federal agencies reap from collaboration with a highly reputable agency, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? Utilizing a dataset covering 30 U.S. federal agencies over a period of 34 years (1980–2013), we estimate the short and long‐term reputational effects of interagency collaboration. Collaboration is measured by the number of memorandums of understanding in effect between e…
I Care About Your Plight, But Only If I Like Your Leader
People’s default levels of empathy toward members of a distant group tend to be low. The current research shows that favorable perceptions regarding the personality of a group’s leader can stimulate empathy and pro-social behavior toward his or her countrymen. In four experimental studies ( N = 884), we found that exposure to a news article that positively (vs. negatively) characterizes a foreign national leader (vs. non-national leader) led to (…
Buy me
A substantial body of research has investigated consumer perceptions of a product based on the country where it originated (CoO). Such judgments have been shown to fluctuate due to a number of factors, among them changes in political conditions. The current research shows that a key factor in CoO-based evaluations of products is the image of respective national leaders. In two experimental studies, conducted in the United States, we found that ex…
National Leaders’ Personality Cues and Americans’ Attitudes Toward Their Countries
Tell Me Who Is Your Leader, and I Will Tell You Who You Are
The increasing visibility of prominent political leaders in news media is well documented in political science literature. The main concern that has been raised in this connection is that the complexity of political processes is being reduced to achievements and standpoints of individual politicians, and the importance of rational opinion building is discounted. The results of the current study provide the first empirical evidence to account for …
Bad News
This is a study on international news flow based on a computerized analysis of foreign news coverage of national leaders in seven liberal democracies (Canada, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S.), encompassing a period of 30 years (N = 266,177). The results attest to a longitudinal trend in the coverage of foreign leaders in the political media of three countries—Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.: the tone is becoming increasingly…
Bad News or Mad News? Sentiment Scoring of Negativity, Fear, and Anger in News Content
This article examines the prevalence and nature of negativity in news content. Using dictionary-based sentiment analysis, we examine roughly fifty-five thousand front-page news stories, comparing four different affect lexicons, one for general negativity, and three capturing different measures of fear and anger. We show that fear and anger are distinct measures that capture different sentiments. It may therefore be possible to separate out fear a…
When Fake News Becomes Real
This research assesses possible associations between viewing fake news (i.e., political satire) and attitudes of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism toward political candidates. Using survey data collected during the 2006 Israeli election campaign, the study provides evidence for an indirect positive effect of fake news viewing in fostering the feelings of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism, through the mediator variable of perceived realism o…
Two routes to personalized politics
This article describes two opposing types of political personalization: centralizing and decentralizing personalization. The first implies the centralization of political power in the hands of a few leaders, while the latter indicates a diffusion of group power among its components: individual politicians. We start by proposing definitions of the types and subtypes of centralized and decentralized personalization and review the literature in sear…
Leaders First, Countries After
This study is the first comparative analysis of mediated political personalization in the international arena; its contribution to the research in the field is twofold: (a) through a longitudinal analysis, it shows that media coverage of foreign countries focuses increasingly on state leaders rather than on the countries per se; and (b) it accounts for variations in the level of mediated political personalization between pairs of countries: the g…
Charismatic Leaders and Mediated Personalization in the International Arena
A big data analysis of six countries has demonstrated that Western news media focus increasingly on foreign leaders, at the expense of their respective countries—a process termed here as mediated political personalization in the international arena. Important variations found across the countries in the sample are attributed to differences in media systems, media values, and the level of development of communication technologies. However, for the…
Candidate Image in Election Campaigns
Journal Article Candidate Image in Election Campaigns: Attribute Agenda Setting, Affective Priming, and Voting Intentions Get access Meital Balmas, Meital Balmas **Department of Communication, †Department of Communication and Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel Meital Balmas is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests inc…
Two routes to personalized politics
This article describes two opposing types of political personalization: centralizing and decentralizing personalization. The first implies the centralization of political power in the hands of a few leaders, while the latter indicates a diffusion of group power among its components: individual politicians. We start by proposing definitions of the types and subtypes of centralized and decentralized personalization and review the literature in sear…
Candidate Image in Election Campaigns
Journal Article Candidate Image in Election Campaigns: Attribute Agenda Setting, Affective Priming, and Voting Intentions Get access Meital Balmas, Meital Balmas **Department of Communication, †Department of Communication and Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel Meital Balmas is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests inc…
Tell Me Who Is Your Leader, and I Will Tell You Who You Are
The increasing visibility of prominent political leaders in news media is well documented in political science literature. The main concern that has been raised in this connection is that the complexity of political processes is being reduced to achievements and standpoints of individual politicians, and the importance of rational opinion building is discounted. The results of the current study provide the first empirical evidence to account for …
Bad News or Mad News? Sentiment Scoring of Negativity, Fear, and Anger in News Content
This article examines the prevalence and nature of negativity in news content. Using dictionary-based sentiment analysis, we examine roughly fifty-five thousand front-page news stories, comparing four different affect lexicons, one for general negativity, and three capturing different measures of fear and anger. We show that fear and anger are distinct measures that capture different sentiments. It may therefore be possible to separate out fear a…
Bad News
This is a study on international news flow based on a computerized analysis of foreign news coverage of national leaders in seven liberal democracies (Canada, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S.), encompassing a period of 30 years (N = 266,177). The results attest to a longitudinal trend in the coverage of foreign leaders in the political media of three countries—Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.: the tone is becoming increasingly…
Charismatic Leaders and Mediated Personalization in the International Arena
A big data analysis of six countries has demonstrated that Western news media focus increasingly on foreign leaders, at the expense of their respective countries—a process termed here as mediated political personalization in the international arena. Important variations found across the countries in the sample are attributed to differences in media systems, media values, and the level of development of communication technologies. However, for the…
The reputational dividends of collaborating with a highly reputable agency
What reputational dividends in the media, if any, do federal agencies reap from collaboration with a highly reputable agency, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? Utilizing a dataset covering 30 U.S. federal agencies over a period of 34 years (1980–2013), we estimate the short and long‐term reputational effects of interagency collaboration. Collaboration is measured by the number of memorandums of understanding in effect between e…
Examining real-world legitimization of cross-party violence through two explanatory frameworks
Cross-party violence – violence between opposing partisans – is a growing concern worldwide. Understanding the predictors of the legitimization of violence against political opponents is thus becoming a vital goal. In this work, we propose two potential explanatory frameworks: affective polarization and low non-violent group efficacy. The first reflects an affective motivation to harm the out-party, while the latter reflects an instrumental motiv…
National Leaders’ Personality Cues and Americans’ Attitudes Toward Their Countries
Candidate Image in Election Campaigns
Journal Article Candidate Image in Election Campaigns: Attribute Agenda Setting, Affective Priming, and Voting Intentions Get access Meital Balmas, Meital Balmas **Department of Communication, †Department of Communication and Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel Meital Balmas is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests inc…
Leaders First, Countries After
This study is the first comparative analysis of mediated political personalization in the international arena; its contribution to the research in the field is twofold: (a) through a longitudinal analysis, it shows that media coverage of foreign countries focuses increasingly on state leaders rather than on the countries per se; and (b) it accounts for variations in the level of mediated political personalization between pairs of countries: the g…
Charismatic Leaders and Mediated Personalization in the International Arena
A big data analysis of six countries has demonstrated that Western news media focus increasingly on foreign leaders, at the expense of their respective countries—a process termed here as mediated political personalization in the international arena. Important variations found across the countries in the sample are attributed to differences in media systems, media values, and the level of development of communication technologies. However, for the…
When Fake News Becomes Real
This research assesses possible associations between viewing fake news (i.e., political satire) and attitudes of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism toward political candidates. Using survey data collected during the 2006 Israeli election campaign, the study provides evidence for an indirect positive effect of fake news viewing in fostering the feelings of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism, through the mediator variable of perceived realism o…
Two routes to personalized politics
This article describes two opposing types of political personalization: centralizing and decentralizing personalization. The first implies the centralization of political power in the hands of a few leaders, while the latter indicates a diffusion of group power among its components: individual politicians. We start by proposing definitions of the types and subtypes of centralized and decentralized personalization and review the literature in sear…
Bad News or Mad News? Sentiment Scoring of Negativity, Fear, and Anger in News Content
This article examines the prevalence and nature of negativity in news content. Using dictionary-based sentiment analysis, we examine roughly fifty-five thousand front-page news stories, comparing four different affect lexicons, one for general negativity, and three capturing different measures of fear and anger. We show that fear and anger are distinct measures that capture different sentiments. It may therefore be possible to separate out fear a…
Bad News
This is a study on international news flow based on a computerized analysis of foreign news coverage of national leaders in seven liberal democracies (Canada, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S.), encompassing a period of 30 years (N = 266,177). The results attest to a longitudinal trend in the coverage of foreign leaders in the political media of three countries—Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.: the tone is becoming increasingly…
National Leaders’ Personality Cues and Americans’ Attitudes Toward Their Countries
Tell Me Who Is Your Leader, and I Will Tell You Who You Are
The increasing visibility of prominent political leaders in news media is well documented in political science literature. The main concern that has been raised in this connection is that the complexity of political processes is being reduced to achievements and standpoints of individual politicians, and the importance of rational opinion building is discounted. The results of the current study provide the first empirical evidence to account for …
I Care About Your Plight, But Only If I Like Your Leader
People’s default levels of empathy toward members of a distant group tend to be low. The current research shows that favorable perceptions regarding the personality of a group’s leader can stimulate empathy and pro-social behavior toward his or her countrymen. In four experimental studies ( N = 884), we found that exposure to a news article that positively (vs. negatively) characterizes a foreign national leader (vs. non-national leader) led to (…
Buy me
A substantial body of research has investigated consumer perceptions of a product based on the country where it originated (CoO). Such judgments have been shown to fluctuate due to a number of factors, among them changes in political conditions. The current research shows that a key factor in CoO-based evaluations of products is the image of respective national leaders. In two experimental studies, conducted in the United States, we found that ex…
Examining real-world legitimization of cross-party violence through two explanatory frameworks
Cross-party violence – violence between opposing partisans – is a growing concern worldwide. Understanding the predictors of the legitimization of violence against political opponents is thus becoming a vital goal. In this work, we propose two potential explanatory frameworks: affective polarization and low non-violent group efficacy. The first reflects an affective motivation to harm the out-party, while the latter reflects an instrumental motiv…
The reputational dividends of collaborating with a highly reputable agency
What reputational dividends in the media, if any, do federal agencies reap from collaboration with a highly reputable agency, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? Utilizing a dataset covering 30 U.S. federal agencies over a period of 34 years (1980–2013), we estimate the short and long‐term reputational effects of interagency collaboration. Collaboration is measured by the number of memorandums of understanding in effect between e…
The Warm War
The war between Russia and Ukraine is not only over territory or security but also over public opinion. Research has shown that national leaders can leverage their personality – in a general, positive sense – to arouse, in people living beyond their countries’ borders, emotions of empathy or pro-social reactions towards their countries’ citizens. We focus on the personality of Ukrainian President Zelensky and examine which of his personality trai…
Increasing Perceived Outgroup Heterogeneity Following Exposure to Extreme Violence
Exposure to political violence often drives individuals toward extreme attitudes and greater support for retaliatory policies, including heightened perceptions of outgroup homogeneity. In violent intergroup conflicts, such perceptions can be especially dangerous, as they may justify indiscriminate violence against the outgroup. The current research aims to address Jewish Israelis’ perceptions of Palestinians’ variability following the October 7 H…
The illusion of political attitudes
Most polarization research focuses on conservatives and liberals, overlooking individuals holding cross-cutting attitude (CCA; mixed conservative and liberal views). Using survey data from two polarized countries, we distinguish between objective (actual) and subjective (perceived) CCA and examine their relationship with political news consumption. According to the results, many participants misperceived their attitude structure, seeing it as cro…
Effects of Framing Counter-Stereotypes as Surprising on Rethinking Prior Opinions About Outgroups
In this paper we address the unmet potential of counter-stereotypes (CS) by explicitly expressing feelings of surprise in media frames, to acknowledge the possible surprising effect attached to an encounter with a CS. Using a two-study survey-experiment (Nstudy 1 = 475, Nstudy 2 = 565) in the context of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, we demonstrate the moderating role of political ideology in the effect of exposure to surprise framing of CS …
Political science (13 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (9 works) · Social Media and Politics (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works)