Journal article
Understanding Government Public Opinion: How Conspiracy Mentality and Policy Issue Concerns Shape Government Performance Evaluations
International journal of public opinion research, Vol.37(1), edae066
12/21/2024
DOI: 10.1093/ijpor/edae066
Appears in UI Libraries Support Open Access
Abstract
Citizens’ assessments of government performance are rooted in their judgement on how public policy responds to their concerns, a key element for a sustainable democracy. However, conspiracy mentality, where individuals believe in larger plans orchestrated by powerful entities or the government, may impact such judgement. To examine the antecedents to people’s assessment about how well the government responds to salient issues in society, this study examines the connection between citizens’ policy concerns, conspiracy mentality, and their assessment of government performance. Analyzing data from an original two-wave panel survey conducted in the United States using cross-sectional, lagged, and autoregressive causal ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models, the study shows that conspiracy mentality is positively related to policy issue concerns, while policy issue concerns are negatively associated with the perception of government performance. Importantly, policy issues concerns significantly mediated this relationship. Individuals with higher levels of conspiracy mentality are more likely to have issue concerns that ultimately shape their negative views on how well the government addresses important problems in society.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Understanding Government Public Opinion: How Conspiracy Mentality and Policy Issue Concerns Shape Government Performance Evaluations
- Creators
- Bingbing Zhang - University of IowaAraceli MateosHomero Gil de Zúñiga - Universidad de Salamanca
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- International journal of public opinion research, Vol.37(1), edae066
- DOI
- 10.1093/ijpor/edae066
- ISSN
- 1471-6909
- eISSN
- 1471-6909
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Grant note
- Spanish National Research Agency's Program for the Generation of KnowledgeScientific and Technological Strengthening Research + Development Grant: PID2020-115562GB-I00 Beatriz Galindo Program from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation UniversitiesJunta de Castilla y Leon
This work has benefited from the support of the Spanish National Research Agency's Program for the Generation of Knowledge and the Scientific and Technological Strengthening Research + Development Grant PID2020-115562GB-I00. The last author is funded by the "Beatriz Galindo Program" from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation & Universities, and the Junta de Castilla y Leon. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this study lies entirely with the authors.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/21/2024
- Academic Unit
- Center for Social Science Innovation; School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Record Identifier
- 9984770790802771
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