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This article reports on research into staff perceptions of the goals of the public library. The current study is a replication study based on an article published in Library Quarterly in 1984. The current study considers the concept of a core "enduring" or common set of values or goals associated with the LIS profession and asks if these are consistent across a library workforce and across time. The historical dimension of this current study allowed the researchers to investigate any identifiable change and the ongoing development of staff perceptions of library goals since the original study nearly 40 years ago. Findings indicate only minor changes in perceptions and a consistency of goals across the workforce and across time. The findings inform deeper understanding of the values and goals of public libraries and library staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several special collections libraries develop programs, marketing programs, and webpages to improve public access to collections. However, public perceptions of special collections libraries are poorly understood and library professionals instead depend on anecdotes or own experiences to identify barriers to access. University College London (UCL) Special Collections used an online survey to reach communities outside the university to understand what they think UCL Special Collections is and what interventions might encourage them to visit. Through their survey, it is easier to understand misconceptions about special collections and how it may discourage someone from learning more. Specific marketing and programming interventions applicable to special collections libraries are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates caregivers' perceptions of the benefits of library visits in relation to preschool children's learning and development. Reasons and benefits for attending libraries and storytimes, which were reported in previous research, are synthesized. Caregivers in Taiwan who visited public libraries in August 2019 (before COVID-19) with their newborn to 8-year-old children were asked one open-ended question in the context of a library user satisfaction survey. In total, 405 responses were gathered and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Three main benefits were identified related to education, socialization, and enjoyment, in line with prior studies; however, participants expressed their reasons with depth and clarity. The findings show that caregivers have positive perceptions toward public libraries and value public libraries for supporting preschool children's learning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an interview with California Congressman Ted Lieu, he discusses what individuals can do to reduce the risks of nuclear weapons and climate change. Lieu emphasizes the importance of contacting members of Congress and expressing concerns through meetings, emails, or social media. He also suggests writing letters to the editor and supporting organizations that advocate for change. While public pressure can be effective, Lieu acknowledges that it depends on the issue and the intensity of the pressure. He encourages individuals to continue pushing for change and educating members of Congress on the importance of these issues. [Extracted from the article]

Just outrageous things - like the fact that they used all those FBI documents in the hearing against Oppenheimer, but denied Oppenheimer's lawyer any access to them, saying that they were still classified. But because Oppenheimer let several months go by before reporting the conversation to US intelligence authorities, it became a key issue nearly a decade later, in subsequent hearings about Oppenheimer's trustworthiness. I mean, you know, it was a feeler, and Oppenheimer said: "No." End of story. B Bird: b But the security people were concerned about the fact that Oppenheimer didn't volunteer this information for three months. Chevalier thought that Oppenheimer should know what happened; Oppenheimer cut him off. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the increasing public and professional perception that libraries promote learning and community, mounting evidence suggests that public and school libraries are often unwelcoming places for youth who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Using data from eight focus groups with 50 BIPOC youths ages 12–18, we discovered varying degrees of belonging in public and school libraries. We also found that behavioral norms, policies, and frameworks of social belonging in libraries result in many BIPOC youths rejecting or being excluded from library spaces. These frameworks and policies are enforced through a system of surveillance and policing that many youths accept as necessary to create quiet library spaces. This combination of social and institutional practices sets the stage for persistent marginalization of many BIPOC youths and teaches them to accept and replicate social inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the representation of scientists and politicians in editorial cartoons from three countries: Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Of 466 cartoons collected from six Sunday newspapers (two from each country) over an 18-month period, 226 (49%) contained some reference to COVID-19. A qualitative analysis of cartoons highlights the politicisation of science and the relative absence of scientists in the cartoon discourse. Cartoonists focus on the political aspects of the pandemic, often portraying politicians as juggling competing demands, such as health needs versus personal freedom. However, they often miss the opportunity to address the reasons for the imposition of COVID-19-related restrictions or the effectiveness of health measures, instead portraying scientists as oppositional figures. In addressing COVID-19 in this way, cartoonists subtly suggest conflicts between the values of scientists, politicians and society. Cartoonists also tie the pandemic into broader political discourses in each country, for example, states' rights, corruption and Brexit in, respectively Australia, South Africa and the UK. This work provides insights into journalistic coverage of complex, science-related issues, with a particular focus on the ways that editorial coverage reflects public sentiment, policy responses and social attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No study has systematically investigated the public's perceptions of cyber risks and their relationship with the acceptance of fully Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs). To address this knowledge gap, we developed a conceptual model and investigated the impact of the cyber-emulated risks (cyberattack, safety risk, connectivity risk, privacy risk, and performance risk) that may influence the adoption of CAVs. We tested the proposed model using structural equation modelling with a nationally representative sample of 2062 adults from the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia. The results indicate that perceived cyberattacks had a significant but marginally neutral effect on usage intent, illustrating the acceptance of technical risk with CAVs. This finding challenges the commonly held belief that cyberattacks negatively influence the adoption of products and technology in other product development fields, such as information technology. CAV cyberattacks elevate concerns about safety, connectivity, privacy, and performance risks. Interestingly, connectivity risk had no significant impact on CAV's behaviour intention, but mediation analysis showed it indirectly affects CAV's acceptance through privacy and performance risks. Regarding socio-demographic and technological attributes, participants of older age, middle income, low-middle education, high cybersecurity knowledge and AV understanding exhibit high anxiety about CAV cyberattacks. The results hold significant policy implications, suggesting the need for tailored strategies in enhancing the cybersecurity of CAVs to ensure their successful adoption and deployment. The findings of this study aim to enhance the quality of transport policy and bridge the gap between theory and practice in addressing cyber risks in the transport sector. • Developed a conceptual model with five theoretical constructs to assess the perceived cyber risks in AV adoption. • A nationally representative sample of 2062 adults from the US, UK, NZ, and AU was analysed to test the model. • Cyberattacks had a significant but marginally neutral effect on usage intent. • Older and middle-income participants exhibit high anxiety about CAV cyberattacks. • Participants with high cyber or AV knowledge were more worried about CAV cyberattacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural landscapes, as products of the interaction between humans and nature, not only reflect the history and culture of rural areas but also symbolize economic and social progress. This study proposes a deep learning-based model for Weibo data analysis aimed at exploring the development direction of rural landscapes from the perspective of the Chinese public. The research reveals that the Chinese public's attention to rural landscapes has significantly increased with the evolution of government governance concepts. Most people express a high level of satisfaction and happiness with the existing rural landscapes, while a minority harbor negative emotions towards unreasonable new rural construction. Through the analysis of public opinion regarding rural landscapes, this study will assist decision-makers in understanding the mechanisms of public discourse on social media. It will also aid relevant scholars and designers in providing targeted solutions, which hold significant importance for policy formulation and the exploration of specific development patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental nonprofit organizations (ENPOs) play a critical role in climate governance. Though ENPOs dedicate significant efforts to advocacy and providing public services, their interaction with public opinion on global warming has not been fully explored. Through multilevel regression analysis on county-level data in the U.S., this article examines the relationship between the presence of ENPOs and public perceptions of global warming, taking into account variations among ENPOs. The findings indicate that: (1) the overall presence of ENPOs is slightly, but not significantly, positively correlated with public perceptions of global warming, with advocacy-oriented ENPOs showing a more robust and statistically significant correlation; (2) there is an inverted-U relationship between the presence of ENPOs and public opinion on global warming, with advocacy-oriented ENPOs reaching tipping points earlier than service-oriented ENPOs; and (3) the partisanship of liberal counties influences this association. This study suggests a potential role for nonprofits in policymaking by interacting with public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest in both party and citizens’ support for the EU, the relationship between sources of public attitudes toward the EU and the values deriving from structural cleavages remains poorly observed. Particularly, the emergence of a new Transnational Cleavage appears theoretically and empirically disconnected from the state of knowledge on the sources of support and opposition for the Union. How do past explanations of support for the EU relate to individual positioning along Green-Alternative-Libertarian (GAL) and Traditional-Authoritarian-Nationalist (TAN) values? Our research aims to bridge public opinion studies on support for the EU with cleavage theory, going beyond the analysis of party positions, but focusing, instead, on citizens’ beliefs at the individual level. Our results show that transnational cleavage defines a dimension on which explanatory factors of support for the EU align consistently. Differently from the U-curve of the left-right cleavage, it shows a linear trend profiling pros versus opponents of the EU integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street performance or busking is common in public spaces. The literature highlights two psychological issues: the effect of street performance on public space perception and the complexity of the appreciation of street performance, regarded as street audience experience (SAE). The present study aims at verifying the effect of street performance on public space perception, while examining SAE as a mediator of this effect. We conducted a between-subjects field experiment (a quasi-experiment; N = 292) in Hong Kong. Participants assessed a public space without (control) or with (experimental) musical busking on essentialism, anti-essentialism, sonic restorativeness, and overall liking. In the experimental condition, unengaged passersby and engaged audience further evaluated SAE factors of emotion, intellect, novelty, place, interaction, and technique, and outcomes of overall satisfaction and donation worth. The public space with busking was perceived as significantly more sonically restorative. Engaged audience perceived the space as significantly more essentialist, anti-essentialist, sonically restorative, and likeable. Engaged audience also experienced more positive SAE and outcome variables. SAE fully mediated the effects of street performance on public space perception and outcome variables, respectively. These findings support the positive impact of street performance, which may enhance city inhabitants' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people perceive the utility of redistribution? Support for redistribution is commonly understood as being determined by self‐interest in a way that is monotonically proportional to expected net transfers. However, this would imply that average support for redistribution is static and unaffected by changes in the distribution of incomes. This study addresses this incongruence by integrating concepts from the literature on redistribution preferences, namely the diminishing marginal utility of income, inequity aversion and loss aversion. These concepts are formalized by making two distinctions regarding redistribution: absolute versus relative utility and gains versus losses. An analysis of the European/World Values Survey suggests that the preferences of the poor are determined by absolute gains, while the preferences of the rich are determined by relative losses. In other words, the poor care about how much they gain from redistribution, while the rich care about the share of their income that they lose from it. The findings have important implications for the relationships among public opinion, economic development and income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy process theories posit that focusing events can trigger significant shifts in public attention and policy preferences, thereby reshaping public agenda setting. Prior studies, however, have not clearly defined the scope of public opinion changes induced by these focusing events, leading to inconsistent empirical findings. This study aims to reconceptualize the multiple layers of public opinion and formulate testable hypotheses to investigate the causal effects of a major focusing event—the 2016 Orlando nightclub mass shooting—on public opinion. Using original and unique survey data collected immediately pre‐ and post‐Orlando shooting, we find that this event significantly heightened public attention to terror‐related issues, particularly armed terror attacks on civilians. This increased attention translated into heightened support for augmented government counterterrorism spending. However, the event did not significantly alter public attention or support for government spending on other terror‐related acts less relevant to the Orlando shooting. Moreover, the event did not change individuals' policy preferences regarding specific policy proposals to address mass shootings. Our study enriches public policy and public opinion research and provides fresh insights into the relationship between focusing events and public agenda setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of using nuclear weapons to kill noncombatants is said to evoke strong moral opprobrium among millions of individuals across the globe, such that national leaders should be constrained from using the weapons even when such a decision would be strategically sensible. Classical area scholarship and recent survey evidence suggest that this "nuclear taboo" is strong among the Chinese public, buttressed by culturally grounded preferences for moderation in warfare. Drawing on findings in cultural sociology and political behavior, we argue that previous studies mislead on the extent to which ordinary Chinese citizens might oppose the use of nuclear weapons in a real military clash, primarily due to a failure to distinguish baseline preferences for nuclear nonuse from the willingness to approve of governmental decisions to use these weapons. Results from an original survey experiment fielded in mainland China show that many individuals who personally dislike the idea of using nuclear weapons are nonetheless willing to support their leaders' decision to do so. Our study contributes new and systematic knowledge about Chinese nuclear attitudes and highlights the value of harnessing interdisciplinary insights to inform the research agenda on the nuclear taboo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public views on international organizations (IOs) have become a matter of central concern. While actors in world politics increasingly try to legitimize or delegitimize IOs, scholars have begun investigating such phenomena systematically. This paper provides the most comprehensive IO (de)legitimation study to date. Building on cueing theory, and considering input as well as output legitimacy, I examine the isolated and combined effects of delegitimation and self-legitimation on public perceptions of IOs. I concentrate on government criticism and citizen protests as two salient practices of delegitimation. In investigating self-legitimation, I focus on IOs' public statements and institutional reforms. I study public opinion on the UN, World Bank, and WHO, as IOs of different functional scopes and levels of salience. In 2021, I conducted survey experiments on more than 32,000 citizens in ten countries worldwide (Australia, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya, South Korea, and Turkey) – weighted by age, gender, region, and education. My main findings are: Delegitimation by governments and citizen protests has some limited effectiveness, depending on the IO in question. While IO self-legitimization statements and reforms in themselves do not boost public support for IOs, they are generally effective at neutralizing delegitimation attempts by governments and citizen protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is still frequently the case today that the Italian political media use the term 'fascist' as an epithet aimed at opponents who do not proclaim themselves to be such in order to discredit them in the eyes of democratic public opinion, a usage with a long the history in the Italian Republic. In recent times the alarm over an imminent fascist threat was reiterated with regard to Silvio Berlusconi's government, which in the years between the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century offers a paradigmatic case. Following the collapse of the First Republic, the profound transformation of the political framework and Berlusconi's entry onto the scene, the category of fascism was in fact revived in an attempt to delegitimize a right-wing coalition that in turn disavowed the values of anti-fascism. By examining the political media debates of the period between the birth of Forza Italia and the fall of the last Berlusconi's government, the aim of the article is to highlight these tendencies to use the past and bend to current needs with effects that are still visible in the current situation of political communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contributes to a forum that discusses how publics can be studied within a global framework, specifically influencing. The author discusses ephemeral publics in states of emergency by highlighting the influence of public opinion during World War I.

Policy PointsThis study examines the impact of several world‐changing events in 2020, such as the pandemic and widespread racism protests, on the US population's comfort with the use of identifiable data for public health. Before the 2020 election, there was no significant difference between Democrats and Republicans. However, African Americans exhibited a decrease in comfort that was different from other subgroups.Our findings suggest that the public remained supportive of public health data activities through the pandemic and the turmoil of 2020 election cycle relative to other data use. However, support among African Americans for public health data use experienced a unique decline compared to other demographic groups. Context: Recent legislative privacy efforts have not included special provisions for public health data use. Although past studies documented support for public health data use, several global events in 2020 have raised awareness and concern about privacy and data use. This study aims to understand whether the events of 2020 affected US privacy preferences on secondary uses of identifiable data, focusing on public health and research uses. Methods: We deployed two online surveys—in February and November 2020—on data privacy attitudes and preferences using a choice‐based–conjoint analysis. Participants received different data‐use scenario pairs—varied by the type of data, user, and purpose—and selected scenarios based on their comfort. A hierarchical Bayes regression model simulated population preferences. Findings: There were 1,373 responses. There was no statistically significant difference in the population's data preferences between February and November, each showing the highest comfort with population health and research data activities and the lowest with profit‐driven activities. Most subgroups' data preferences were comparable with the population's preferences, except African Americans who showed significant decreases in comfort with population health and research. Conclusions: Despite world‐changing events, including a pandemic, we found bipartisan public support for using identifiable data for public health and research. The decreasing support among African Americans could relate to the increased awareness of systemic racism, its harms, and persistent disparities. The US population's preferences support including legal provisions that permit public health and research data use in US laws, which are currently lacking specific public health use permissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research aimed at understanding public awareness and opinion on climate change has focused heavily on media coverage. Nearly all prior media studies focus on the United States and on a small number of elite news sources, notably the national newspapers of record. To widen the aperture, we take advantage of a database (MediaCloud) that covers a much larger array of print and word media: 168 million articles about all subjects, derived from 9000 unique U.S. news sources. Coverage of climate change from the “heartland” sources—dominated by state and local news outlets far from the headquarters of national newspapers of record—has risen 144% from 2011 until 2022. Elite news coverage, however, has risen at twice that pace (299%). Over time, the propensity to cover climate change has diverged. In 2011 there were 104 days when the heartland news sources had more coverage of climate change than elite news outlets such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. By 2022 there were only 11 such days. That year, elite news outlets produced roughly three times the coverage of climate change as heartland news outlets. We also find some differences in the topics covered by these two categories of news sources. Such disparities in the intensity of attention to climate change, along with apparently more subtle variations in topical coverage, are variations that deserve future explanation. They are also a reminder that analysis of climate coverage should choose data sources with care since the narrative around what the public is learning about climate appears to vary substantially between heartland and elite new sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electoral institution ensures the free expression of the will of the citizens in the choice of the ruler. The electoral institution is going through a difficult period not only within the post-Soviet space, but also in Russia, where it has to be adapted to the current global reality and the growing influence of network communications. Its modernization to a larger extent will depend on the understanding of its history. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive historical and political analysis of the electoral system development in contemporary Russia by looking at the institution of parliamentary democracy. For this, the study examines the approval ratings for the State Duma and the Federation Council, reported by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center between 2006 and 2020. Findings show that the current electoral institution had a significant impact on the establishment and consolidation of the political system of Russia at the beginning of the 21st century and in overcoming the consequences of the post-Soviet political transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused a seemingly high level of unity amongst Europeans in support of Ukraine. However, this article uncovers some inter- and intra-country fault-lines in public opinion across and within 16 EU countries and the UK regarding pro-Ukraine aid initiatives by using a two-wave design with data from the EUI-YouGov survey conducted in April and September 2022. Findings show that support is relatively stable but varies a lot depending on the specific measure and between countries. We uncover lowest support for measures that go against the self-interest of Europeans such as deploying troops and accepting higher energy costs. Frontrunners of Ukraine support are geographically close to Russia and located in both Western and Eastern Europe (though not exclusively), whereas laggards are countries of Eastern and Southern Europe with a history of Russian ties during the Cold War. Yet within countries, Ukraine support does not follow a simple pre-determined ideological pattern of the left and right. Most countries with lower overall support for Ukraine display a higher level of polarization between supporters of the incumbent versus the opposition party. Understanding these fault-lines is important for insights on current and future levels of Ukraine aid across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note presents the RepResent Belgian Panel (RBP). The RBP is a voter panel survey consisting of four waves fielded to a sample of voters in Belgium around the May 2019 federal, regional, and European elections in Belgium. It provides unique data on about 250 variables for a quota sample of the same respondents, pre-2019 elections (N = 7351), post-2019 elections (N = 3909), one year after the elections (N = 1996), and 2 years after the elections (N = 1119). The RBP panel dataset was designed to analyse voters' political attitudes and behaviours, notably on different dimensions of democratic representation, and with a specific focus on democratic resentment (e.g. citizens' attitudes towards democracy such as distrust and alienation, but also behaviours such as abstention, protest, or voting for anti-establishment parties). Its longitudinal structure allows to explore the political dynamics at play in Belgium throughout the lengthy government formation process. Finally, the last two waves of the RBP were fielded during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing to explore public opinion before and during this global crisis. The RBP should be of interest to scholars of public opinion and electoral studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the origins of Descartes's provisional morality, which he claims to have created in 1620. Some commentators are skeptical of this claim, but the author argues that Descartes likely adopted the maxims of his morality from ancient and Renaissance philosophers and developed them further during his travels in the early 1620s. The article provides evidence from Descartes's writings and the influence of philosophers like Charron and Sextus Empiricus. Descartes's moral code includes three maxims: obeying the laws and customs of one's country, being firm and decisive in one's actions, and mastering oneself and changing desires rather than controlling external circumstances. These maxims aim to achieve practical action, moral development, and contentment. The article also addresses the apparent contradiction between Descartes's reluctance to write about morality publicly and his inclusion of moral principles in his later works. Overall, the evidence suggests that Descartes did develop a moral code during his early philosophy and incorporated it into his later writings. [Extracted from the article]

The understanding an individual holds about stress can influence their appraisal of it and have implications for subsequent health, yet knowledge of such understanding is scarce. This study explored discrepancies between lay and expert understanding of stress and links made between stress and health. Twenty‐six lay members of the local community aged 18–62 years, and seven expert stress researchers, participated in individual semi‐structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the two datasets was conducted separately, then findings compared to identify similarities and differences between lay and scientific understanding. Whilst many similarities were identified, we found three important discrepancies: (i) Lay participants demonstrated a strong awareness of the indirect effects of stress on health via health behaviours; (ii) compared to experts, lay participants showed less awareness of a direct path between stress and physical health; (iii) lay participants showed less understanding of social determinants of stress and collective measures for stress management that went beyond individual responsibility. Discrepancies identified serve to highlight potential misunderstandings in lay conceptualisation of stress and its links with health. These findings have potential to facilitate the work of practitioners who serve as intermediaries to translate scientific knowledge into therapeutic benefit, through improved awareness and communication surrounding stress understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building public consensus about the threat of climate change is critical for enacting meaningful action to address it. To understand how Americans are changing their beliefs about climate change, research typically relies on cross-sectional survey responses. Data that is collected from the same individuals over time– panel data– provides clearer evidence about whether people’s beliefs are shifting. In this article, we investigate changes in climate beliefs among the American public using panel data from 2,135 survey respondents, analyzing opinion changes through the “Global Warming’s Six Americas” framework– an audience segmentation tool that identifies the people who are the most worried about global warming (the Alarmed) to the least worried (the Dismissive). Our findings indicate that many Americans are changing their minds about climate change and becoming more worried over time, and that these shifts correlate with changes in support for climate policy and behavioral engagement. However, these trends vary within key segments of the population and indicate that while climate communication may be shifting the beliefs of many, strategies for reaching particular audiences may need to be adapted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A burgeoning literature considers the domestic causes and consequences of democratic backsliding for public perceptions of democracy but has yet to fully examine the role of international factors in explaining these perceptions. Specifically, the effect of democratic backsliding in one democracy on public support for democratic principles in other countries has, thus far, defied theoretical and empirical investigation. Addressing this gap, we propose and test a theory of the effects of backsliding on global opinion in which information about democratic decline in one country can lead to increased support for authoritarian governance in another country. To test this, we use an original survey experiment in Israel where we test the effect of two narratives regarding the 2020 U.S. elections—one signaling democratic decline and one signaling democratic resilience—on support for authoritarian governance. We find that respondents exposed to the narrative of U.S. democratic decline were more supportive of authoritarian governance compared to respondents exposed to the narrative of democratic resilience. We further find marginal evidence that the respondents' ideological preferences condition the effect of narrative exposure. Our findings suggest that the democratic backsliding literature has insufficiently explored the global consequences of domestic events and processes on democratic decline worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public opinion on climate change is complex, comprising aspects such as belief, support for policies, and issue salience. This multidimensional nature of climate opinion can be accounted for by identifying "publics," each comprising people with similar climate attitudes. Climate opinion has also been found to relate strongly to political worldviews, with people holding conservative attitudes tending to have low levels of engagement with climate change. However, few studies have investigated how political worldviews relate to membership of climate publics. The current study therefore identifies climate publics in New Zealand and Australia and investigates how they relate to economic and social aspects of conservative worldviews. Using an original online survey, I find no clear link between economic conservatism and membership of climate publics. Social conservatives, however, are more likely to be members of publics with low levels of climate engagement and of "middle" publics, which accept the science of climate change but are "lukewarm" on climate action. Climate opinion appears to be more polarized in Australia than New Zealand. These results provide insight into the worldviews of people in the "mainstream" of climate opinion and suggest that only a minority of the public are demanding ambitious climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drones are now a mainstay in war. Yet not all countries can manufacture armed and networked drones, heightening global demand. While some drone-manufacturing countries have adopted permissive export policies, U.S. policymakers have been more restrictive, citing international legal commitments and domestic export controls. In this study, I consider drone exports as a question of both political economy and public opinion. I derive and test hypotheses about public support for drone exports through a conjoint survey experiment administered in the United States. I find that perceived alignment between the recipient country and United States, as well as the intended use of drones, are the most important factors shaping public support for drone exports. Export control measures are less relevant to public opinion. These findings offer the first experimental evidence about public opinion for drone exports, which have implications for the political economy of security and policies relating to the export of military technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a research gap by exploring the impact of emotional factors, specifically national pride, on public support for economic sanctions, which has received relatively limited attention compared to the strategic aspects of sanctions. Our proposal posits that citizens' national pride, acting as a symbolic motivation, particularly in the context of hostile national competition, can result in increased support for economic sanctions. Furthermore, we suggest that among individuals with strong national pride, the likelihood of supporting economic sanctions tends to rise as their economic perceptions improve. To investigate this relationship, we analyzed data from Japan Electoral Study VI, conducted during Japan's economic sanctions against South Korea in 2019. These findings reveal that national pride significantly shapes public opinion on economic sanctions and that among individuals with strong national pride, positive perceptions of economic conditions act as a catalyst, strengthening their support for economic sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholars have made substantial progress in the debate on party systems in Latin America, many questions about partisanship in the region remain unaddressed. This article explores how the determinants of partisanship identified in the literature navigate in Central America, a region commonly overlooked by scholars. We examine a decade of public opinion surveys by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) from 2008 to 2018 to explore the individual-level determinants of partisan attachments with sixty-six leftist and rightist parties in six Central American countries to test four hypotheses. While differences across countries exist, self-placement on the left-right ideological scale, engagement in societal organizations, and protest participation help portray partisan attachments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the Quebec model of social policy reflect a public opinion more favorable to public services and to income redistribution? To answer this question, the authors use three series of surveys on two core issues of the comparative study of citizens' preferences for the welfare state: support for income redistribution (1986 to 2021) and preferences for the size of public services (2019 to 2023). In all survey series, they observe significantly higher support for redistribution and public services among Quebec respondents than among respondents in other provinces, although respondents in the Atlantic provinces also maintain strong support. Conservative voters and richer citizens are significantly less supportive of public services and redistribution outside Quebec. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Structural nutrition interventions like a sugar tax or a product reformulation are strongly supported among the public health community but may cause a considerable backlash (e.g. inspiring aversion to institutions initiating the interventions among citizens). Such a backlash potentially undermines future health-promotion strategies. This study aims to uncover whether such backlash exists. Methods We fielded a pre-registered randomized, population-based survey experiment among adults from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel (n  =   1765; based on a random sampling of the Dutch population register). Participants were randomly allocated to the control condition (brief facts about health-information provision/nudging), or one of two experimental groups (the same facts, expanded with either a proposed sugar tax on or reformulation of sugar-sweetened beverages). Ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate the proposed interventions' effects on four outcome variables: trust in health-promotion institutions involved; perceptions that these institutions have citizens' well-being in mind (i.e. benevolence); perceptions that these institutions' perspectives are similar to those of citizens (i.e. alignment of perspectives); and attitudes toward nutrition information. Results Trust, perceived benevolence and perceived alignment of perspectives were affected negatively by a proposed sugar tax (−0.24, 95% CI −0.38 to −0.10; −0.15, −0.29 to −0.01; −0.15, −0.30 to 0.00) or product reformulation (−0.32, −0.46 to −0.18; −0.24, −0.37 to −0.11; −0.18, 0.33 to −0.03), particularly among the non-tertiary educated respondents. Conclusions Sugar taxes or product reformulations may delegitimize health-promotion institutions, potentially causing public distancing from or opposition to these bodies. This may be exploited by political and commercial parties to undermine official institutions. Trial registration https://osf.io/qr9jy/?view%5fonly=5e2e875a1fc348f3b28115b7a3fdfd90. Registered 3 February 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Audio recording interviews, focus groups, and naturally occurring interactions have been utilised by social researchers for decades. Yet, the use of audio recordings as a tool to elicit participant responses has received less attention in social science research. This is despite heightened interest in non-traditional techniques such as the use of visual methodologies, and arts-based methods. In this article, I describe how I advanced a known method, vignettes, into an audio narrative to explore perceptions of sex work. This article reports on the methodological rationale for the novel use of audio vignettes, and the capacity they have for memory retrieval, eliciting reflections on lived experiences, and for providing richer attitudinal data. By drawing on 'accessibility theory', this article argues that audio vignettes are a powerful elicitor of attitudes. Furthermore, I claim that audio methods as I define them, can enhance the social scientists' toolkit and that, what I term 'audio sociology' needs further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore the legalisation of mitochondrial donation in the UK as the latest iteration of an established sociotechnical imaginary of permissive yet highly scrutinised human embryo research in the country. The focus of our analysis is the work of the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee as it contributed to the debates and ultimately played a role in enabling the UK to become the first country in the world to legalise clinical use. Mitochondrial donation is a reproductive technology which could allow women with mitochondrial disease to have healthy, genetically related children. From 2011, an extensive process of inquiry was launched in the UK to assess safety, ethics and public attitudes. We analyse video and transcripts of the meeting, and interviews with panellists to explore three themes: contesting scientific interpretation, the labour of alignment and resolution. We demonstrate how micro-interactions during the meeting, and the broader structure of the meeting itself, aligned with the UK sociotechnical imaginary of a permissive but scrutinising approach to human embryo regulation. We conclude that the event was one element of a larger process of review that together worked to render mitochondrial donation as knowable, ethical, desirable and sanctionable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the violent January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, federal authorities have sought to hold participants and organizers accountable for their assault on American democracy. Troublingly, however, a substantial fraction of the public opposes the prosecution of participants in the assault on the Capitol and rejects charging former president Trump with crimes relating to the planning and execution of the attack. Why does a substantial fraction of the American public oppose accountability for perpetrators of the January 6 attack? In this article, we argue that racial attitudes play a central role in determining individuals' attitudes toward accountability for the Capitol attack. Elaborating on the theory of "racial spillover," we argue that former president Trump's frequent use of racial rhetoric—which established a racialized identity and cemented a close relationship between negative racial attitudes and support for his presidency among members of the mass public—created conditions in which these attitudes were likely to "spill over" into the ostensibly non-racialized domain of attitudes toward holding perpetrators, planners, and inciters accountable for the attack. Because attitudes toward accountability for the Capitol attack are inextricable from Trump's racialized persona, we hypothesize that negative racial attitudes should be associated with increased opposition to accountability for those responsible for the attack. Using data from four original, nationally representative surveys fielded between 2021 and 2023, we find strong evidence for our racial spillover hypothesis and show that individuals with more negative racial attitudes are more opposed to accountability for those responsible for the Capitol attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approval of the Supreme Court recently hit its lowest point in decades. Calls for reforming the Court have gained traction as a result. In this study, we look at how media framing can influence public support for two specific reforms: Court packing and term limits. In a survey experiment, we provide respondents with either a pro-, anti-, or mixed-valence framed message about one of these two reforms. We find support for the proposition that media messages have the power to decrease support for reform but not to increase support for reform. Additionally, we theorize that highlighting the conflict surrounding the Court activates ideological considerations individuals hold toward the Court. In support of this theory, we find that discussing either Court packing or term limits decreases specific support of the high Court among Democrats and increases specific support among Republicans across all conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic increase in anti-Asian racial violence in the United States during the pandemic has sparked debates on issues of domestic racial justice and deep-seated racism against Asian Americans. Political scientists, however, have paid relatively little attention to how growing anti-Asian racism might affect contemporary U.S.-China relations, especially by shaping foreign policy discourses and public opinion in China. In this article, I investigate the way the Chinese state media discuss the issue and how such top-down discourses shape mass political attitudes and foreign policy preferences in China. Analyzing the Chinese state media coverage of anti-Asian racial violence, I first find that Chinese official narratives frame the issue as a manifestation of both racially motivated American foreign policy and problems with American democracy. By conducting a nationwide survey experiment in China, I then examine the impact of such top-down political rhetoric on public support for hawkish foreign policies. I find that these political narratives significantly boost racialized and nationalist sentiments among the Chinese masses, which, in turn, garner greater public support for hawkish foreign policy. This article contributes to understanding the foreign policy implications of anti-Asian racism after the global pandemic and the potential racialization of Sino-American great-power competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article represents the transcript of a 2022 witness seminar on the theme of members of the British public writing to politicians. Collectively, the witnesses have experience of this issue dating from the early 1970s through to the present day. Angie Williams shares her experience of handling correspondence for Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn as leaders of the Labour Party. Lord Kinnock (Neil Kinnock) describes what it was like to receive correspondence both as an MP and as Labour Party leader. David Beckingham relates his experience working in the Number 10 Political Office under Theresa May and Boris Johnson. Lord Parkinson (Stephen Parkinson) also gives a perspective on May, for whom he worked both at the Home Office and in Downing Street. Camilla Jequier explains her role dealing with correspondence for two Conservative MPs. The issues explored include attempts to use correspondence to measure public opinion, the shift from letters to email, gifts enclosed with letters, correspondents with mental health issues, death threats, and the emotional dimensions of correspondence. The witnesses had similar or overlapping experiences. There was agreement that correspondence is often misdirected or phrased in ways that are unlikely to be productive. This may point to a failure of citizenship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the oral and physical disruption of 'public' meetings in England in the spring of 1886, when such activity formed part of broader contests over the legitimacy of extra‐parliamentary responses to the Liberal government's Irish Home Rule Bill. Disruption is an important example of the diverse ways in which home rule energised politics outside Westminster and of the heatedness of grassroots responses to it. For those who engaged in it, disruption offered forms of political interaction and participation that, additionally, made claims to representation and opinion. However, disruption was a practice of contestation that was itself the subject of contention and it was decried as transgressing the bounds of appropriate political conduct. Disruption could be seen, in both intent and effect, as a permissive or subversive, inclusive or exclusionary, behaviour. It could therefore legitimise or undermine claims that popular feeling was on the side of or opposed to the policy. The 'politics of disruption' both reflected and generated intense debate about the state of politics in an age of 'mass democracy' – of which home rule was the first major crisis – and about the sanctity of political rights and liberties. This article argues that our understanding of political disruption is enhanced by examining its practice and reception at historical moments, outside the episodic election cycle, when contemporaries believed that it was critically important that 'public opinion' on a political issue be ascertained and voiced, and when the validity of such opinion was disputed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the progress of the Internet and information technology, emotion analysis has been applied to analyse the emotional orientation and evolution trend of online public opinion of online tweets. At present, most of the existing methods use econometric model and machine learning algorithm to predict the trend of online public opinion. Although these methods have achieved good prediction results, they do not take into account the influence of internal factors on network public opinion prediction, such as mutual migration among emotion classes. The emotion may change dynamically because different events trigger it in the evolution process. In this view, this article proposes a novel method, called Deviation Rule Markov Model (DRMM), to predict the emotional change trend of Internet users in online public opinion by analysing the correlation between Internet users' emotional categories. Structurally, the proposed DRMM involves various processes such as pre-processing, emotion classification, data mining and transfer prediction. For the processing of network comment data, the proposed model initially undergoes pre-processing to delete unnecessary data. Then, the extended fuzzy emotion ontology is used to annotate the emotion class of the comment data. Besides, an extended association rule mining algorithm is used in the emotion association analysis process to obtain the transfer probability between emotion classes. Moreover, Markov chain is used to construct an emotional state transition matrix to predict the transition probability of positive or negative emotions. According to the predicted single emotion transfer probability results, the analytic hierarchy process is used to assign values to different emotion classes, and finally, the transfer probability of the overall emotion in a certain period is obtained. Compared with the actual case, the mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the proposed model are 2.7119 and 3.7254, respectively, which has good prediction performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent in‐depth qualitative research indicates that different people ascribe different meanings to their apparently similar stances on immigrants' entitlement to welfare. We are the first to investigate such variation quantitatively among the public‐at‐large, applying the novel method Correlational Class Analysis to an original survey fielded among a representative sample in the Netherlands (n = 2138). We uncover five ways of looking at immigrants' entitlement to welfare, each including both people who oppose that entitlement and those who support it. People who adhere to these different viewpoints substantially differ when it comes to income, education, religious denomination, and political preference. We interpret these unique findings and discuss them in relation to the extant literature on welfare chauvinism. Moreover, uncovering what people's stances regarding immigrants' entitlement to welfare mean not only advances the scholarly debate on welfare chauvinism, but also provides a stepping stone for meaning‐oriented sociological research on public opinion more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]