Public Approval, Policy Issues, and Partisanship in the American Presidency

Although much of the United States undoubtedly was aware of the impeachment hearings and trial for President Donald Trump in 2019–2020, the extent to which information about those events influenced the public remains unknown. Building on scholarship about public opinion and democratic governance, we attempted to fill this knowledge gap through a unique survey. We asked half of our sample to answer three factual questions pertaining to Trump’s first impeachment trial. We ran a quasi-experiment on the other half, trying to influence their view of the trial by informing them of the same three facts that we asked the first group. The quasi-experiment demonstrates that support for acquittal was largely static and that partisanship strongly influences whether the public accepts the veracity and importance of political information. Consequently, civic knowledge today appears to have a limited—perhaps even nonexistent—effect on public attitudes about American politics

Acquittal · Democracy · Impeachment · Political science · Politics · Presidency · Presidential system · Public opinion · Scholarship · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics

• Foreign Policy Scandal, Presidential Impeachment, and Unitary Executive Theory

  Adam M Mcmahon•Congress & the Presidency•2026

  Incluir item

• Framing Crisis Discourse in Biden’s Political Speech

  Open Access•Shehdeh Fareh, Rima Jamil Malkawi et al.•International Journal for the…•2025

  Incluir item

• Stealth Democracy

  Open Access•John R Hibbing, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse et al.•Stealth Democracy•2002

  Incluir item

• The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion

  Open Access•John R Zaller, John Zaller•Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion•1992

  Incluir item

• The Responsible Electorate

  V O Key, Arthur Maass et al.•Responsible Electorate•1966

  Incluir item

• Who Governs?

  James N Druckman, Lawrence R Jacobs•Who Governs?•2015

  Incluir item

• Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation

  Open Access•Joshua Tucker, Andrew Guess et al.•SSRN Electronic Journal•2018

  Incluir item

• Fake news and ideological polarization

  Open Access•Dominic Spohr•Business Information Review•2017

  Incluir item

• Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization

  Open Access•Christopher A Bail, Chris Bail et al.•Proceedings of the National…•2018

  Incluir item

• Social Media, Network Heterogeneity, and Opinion Polarization

  Open Access•Jae Kook Lee, Jihyang Choi et al.•Journal of Communication•2014

  Incluir item

• Uninformed Why People Seem to Know So Little about Politics and What We Can Do about It

  Arthur Lupia•Uninformed•2016

  Incluir item

• Who Knows Best? Education, Partisanship, and Contested Facts

  Open Access•Mark R Joslyn, Donald P Haider-Markel•Politics & Policy•2014

  Incluir item

• Does Media Coverage of Partisan Polarization Affect Political Attitudes

  Matthew Levendusky, N Malhotra•Political Communication•2016

  Incluir item

• Misinformation and the Currency of Democratic Citizenship

  James H Kuklinski, Paul J Quirk et al.•The Journal of Politics•2000

  Incluir item

• Anti-Intellectualism, Populism, and Motivated Resistance to Expert Consensus

  Open Access•Eric Merkley•Public Opinion Quarterly•2020

  Incluir item

• When Corrections Fail

  Open Access•Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler•Political Behavior•2010

  Incluir item

• The Elusive Backfire Effect

  Open Access•Thomas J Wood, Thomas Wood et al.•Political Behavior•2019

  Incluir item

• Partisan Elites as Culprits? How Party Cues Shape Partisan Perceptual Gaps

  Open Access•Martin Bisgaard, Rune Slothuus•American Journal of Political…•2018

  Incluir item

• Stories or Science? Facts, Frames, and Policy Attitudes

  Open Access•Josh Sides, John Sides•American Politics Research•2016

  Incluir item