Graduation Semester and Year
2018
Language
English
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Political Science
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Herschel F Thomas
Abstract
Scholars have found that an environment that appears increasingly polarized in the United States has been accompanied by a decline in institutional trust over several decades. Scholarship involving partisanship and trust suggests that out-party groups are less receptive to political messages than in-groups. In the wake of the false emergency alert in Hawaii that sent citizens into a panic for 38 minutes, messaging and nuclear issues remain a salient topic for study. This thesis presents the results of an experiment (N = 2,310) investigating how political trust is influenced by the partisan interpretation of a message. Survey respondents were presented with treatment messages from varied political sources and then asked a posttest question regarding diffuse trust in government. Results demonstrate that partisanship is a strong factor that affects how people interpret a message, even in the event of a large-scale disaster. The findings suggest that partisanship and preferences for or against authoritarianism influence trust and message interpretation.
Keywords
Partisanship, Polarization, Political trust, Nuclear fear, Message processing, Authoritariansm, Authoritarian personality, Political psychology
Disciplines
Political Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Owens, Ian Trevor, "Polarization and Nuclear Fear: How Partisan Message Processing Affects Public Trust in Government" (2018). Political Science Theses. 12.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/politicalscience_theses/12
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington