Why Some Blame Politics for Their Personal Problems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6179602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vanessa A Baird (University of Colorado Boulder), Vanessa Baird, Jennifer Wolak (0000-0003-4742-7442, University of Colorado Boulder, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 478-489 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Politics Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1532-673X • E-ISSN: 1552-3373 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1532673x211013463 |
| OpenAlex | W3157665937 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 66 |
Why do some people blame the political system for the problems in their lives? We explore the origins of these grievances and how people assign responsibility and blame for the challenges they face. We propose that individual differences in the personality traits of locus of control and self-esteem help explain why some blame the political system for their personal problems. Using responses from a module of the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we show that those with low self-esteem and a weaker sense of control over their fates are more likely to blame the political system for the challenges they face in their lives. We also demonstrate that this assignment of blame is politically consequential, where those who intertwine the personal and the political are more likely to evaluate elected officials based on pocketbook economic conditions rather than sociotropic considerations
Blame · Economics · Locus of control · Management · Personality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
Injury to Insult
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Attributing Presidential Responsibility for National Economic Problems
Locus of Control
The Role of Self-Interest in Social and Political Attitudes
Irrelevant events affect voters' evaluations of government performance
Self-Esteem and Self-Serving Biases in Reactions to Positive and Negative Events
The Development of Self-Esteem
Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.
Social preferences, self-interest, and the demand for redistribution
Personality and Democratic Politics
The American Ethos
Personality and the Foundations of Political Behavior
Democracy for Realists
Genetic influences on level and stability of self-esteem
Locus of control at work
Incumbent performance and electoral control
Injury to Insult
Stability of self-esteem across the life span
Familial resemblance in locus of control
How much do you like your name?” An implicit measure of global self-esteem
Analysis of the Mediating Effect of Personal‐Psychological Variables on the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Political Participation
Attributing Blame
Cognitive links between economic grievances and political responses
Self-Confidence and Gender Gaps in Political Interest, Attention, and Efficacy
Who Do Voters Blame for Policy Failure? Information and the Partisan Assignment of Blame
Political Sophistication and Attributions of Blame in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina
Self-Esteem and Concern With Public Affairs
Self-Esteem and the Development of Partisan Identity
The Federal Face of Voting
Triangulating Political Responsibility
Locus of Control and Anti‐Immigrant Sentiment in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom
Entering Politics
Partisanship, Political Awareness, and Retrospective Evaluations, 1956–2016
Motivated Reasoning, Public Opinion, and Presidential Approval
The voter as juror
How Citizens Think about National Issues
Economic Self-Interest and Political Behavior
Political Sophistication and Economic Voting in the American Electorate
Economic Discontent and Political Behavior
Make It Rain? Retrospection and the Attentive Electorate in the Context of Natural Disasters
The Relationship between Genes, Psychological Traits, and Political Participation
From Life Space to Polling Place
Sociotropic Politics
Fundamental(ist) attribution error
Familial resemblance in locus of control
Beyond locus of control
The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes
Managing Blame
Behavior in organizations as a function of employee's locus of control
Cultural meaning of perceived control
Personality and Political Attitudes
Public-Regardingness as a Value Premise in Voting Behavior
Political Issues and Trust in Government
Dynamic Representation
Self-Interest vs. Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Presidential Voting
Personality and Civic Engagement
Psychological Sources of Political Belief
Changing Locus of Control
| Citations per year | 1.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |