Search

Two current members of the U.S. Supreme Court took their seats despite allegations of sexual harassment (Clarence Thomas) and sexual assault (Brett Kavanaugh) leveled against them during their confirmation hearings. In each instance, the Senate vote was close and split mainly along party lines: Republicans for and Democrats against. Polls showed that a similar division existed among party supporters in the electorate. There are, however, differences among rank-and-file partisans that help shape their views on the issues raised by these two controversial appointments to the nation’s highest court. Using data from a national survey of registered voters, we examine the factors associated with citizens’ attitudes about the role of women in politics, the extent to which sexism is a problem in society, the recent avalanche of sexual harassment charges made against elected officials and other political (as well as entertainment, business, and academic) figures, and the #MeToo movement. We are particularly interested in whether a strong sense of partisan identity adds significantly to our understanding of people’s attitudes on these matters. In addition, our experimental evidence allows us to determine whether shared partisanship overrides other factors when an elected official from one’s own party is accused of sexual misbehavior.

American politics today is driven largely by deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans. That said, there are many people who view the opposition in an overwhelmingly negative light – but who simultaneously possess a mix of positive and negative feelings toward their own party. This paper is a response to prior research (e.g., Lavine, Johnson, and Steenbergen 2012) indicating that such ambivalence increases the probability that voters will engage in "deliberative" (or "effortful") rather than "heuristic" thinking when responding to the choices presented to them in political campaigns. We extend the logic of this argument to a hypothetical race for Congress, using data from a survey experiment to determine whether a high degree of ambivalence toward one's party makes voters more responsive to a negative attack against the candidate of that party. In fact, we find little evidence that partisan ambivalence promotes a deliberative response to negative campaign ads.

Although academic research has yielded mixed results, candidates and consultants are rational people whose experience persuades them that “going negative” can be an effective campaign strategy under the right circumstances. And they are almost certainly right, even if their evidence is more anecdotal than systematic. This article considers whether the impact of negative ads is moderated by perceptions of issue ownership, a factor that is known to affect the candidate preferences of some voters. Focusing on the attitudes of those who identify with the party of the targeted candidate, we examine the changes in support and favorability induced by four policy-based attacks against a hypothetical congressional incumbent seeking reelection. Results from an Internet survey experiment suggest that attacks are somewhat more effective among target co-partisans who do not believe that their party is more competent to handle the issue in question, especially when that issue is salient to the individual.

Early eighteenth-century Edinburgh provided a unique learning environment for aspiring practitioners: one in which the unity of medicine and surgery was appreciated and clinical observations and a reasoning practitioner became the well spring of proper patient care. John Rutherford, a surgical apprentice in this environment, student on the wards of London hospitals and under Boerhaave at Leiden, became one of the original medical professors at the University of Edinburgh medical school in 1726. Rutherford taught the popular, theory-based Practice of Medicine for twenty-two years. Then at the end of 1748 he convinced Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh managers to allow him to begin a new lecture series, entitled Clinical Lectures, conducted at the patient's bedside. Pedagogically, the new lecture series integrated medical theory and its application on the ward. Pragmatically, Rutherford used the Clinical Lectures to transition students into practitioners. He oriented the student to the medical profession at large and placed him simultaneously at the patient-disease-physician interface. He taught that systematic patient observation and examination, when combined with experience and reasoning, were essential to accurate diagnoses and proper therapeutic interventions. Importantly too, Rutherford prepared his students for failure through humility, introspection, and the speculative nature of medical practice.

Joseph Lovell, trained in medicine at Harvard and in military medicine/surgery by the War of 1812, became the first Surgeon General to sit on the reorganised army staff at the tender age of 29 in 1818. With a keen intellect, medical acumen, and wartime experiences for his tools and a close supporting relationship with Commanding General Jacob Jennings Brown and Secretary of War John C Calhoun (1728–1850), Lovell constructed an efficient and effective organisational and administrative framework for the new Medical Department of the US Army. Moreover, he not only redefined the role of the American military physician but also established the professional dignity, respectability and value of the medical officer among line officers and staff. Lovell’s 18-year tenure came to an abrupt end, but the operational framework he created became both foundation and legacy for his successors.

Although there is evidence that negative advertising “works” at least some of the time, it has been suggested that going negative poses a special risk for female candidates because it violates expectations about appropriate behavior that are rooted in the traditional gender stereotypes still held by many voters. In this paper, we employ data from a survey experiment to examine gender differences in the effectiveness of one particular attack made by a challenger against an incumbent of the opposite sex in a hypothetical race for the U.S. House of Representatives. Our interest is not limited to the attack itself, however, but extends to the question of how candidates should respond when they are attacked and whether certain types of responses/rebuttals (including counterattacks) work better for men than they do for women, and vice versa, in terms of mitigating the damage inflicted by an initially successful negative ad. Overall, we find little support for the idea that the effectiveness of either attack or response (denial, counterattack, counterimaging, justification, accusing one's opponent of mudslinging) varies significantly according to candidate gender. Further, shared partisanship matters more than shared gender in shaping how voters react to the campaign messages of male and female candidates.

This chapter provides some useful clues as to the nature and meaning of contemporary discontent by, first, showing that feelings of political mistrust have become diffused throughout the mass public since the 1960s and, second, explaining how a thing could have happened. Elections do matter, but their impact is diminished when voters are frequently bamboozled by candidates who promise what they cannot deliver and are adept at playing the public relations game. The over-time trends reveal a sharp rise in aggregate levels of popular mistrust beginning in the mid-1960s, followed by a partial turnaround in 1980–1984—but then renewed disaffection during the second half of the decade and into the 1990s. It is difficult to know exactly what might be done to prevent the confidence gap from becoming a permanent feature of the American political landscape. Citizens expect a lot from government, and unfortunately, not everyone is going to get everything they want; this is the essential nature of politics.

Although there is evidence that negative advertising “works” at least some of the time, little is known about how candidates should respond when they are attacked. In this study, we proceed from the assumption that hard-hitting attacks on relevant topics (those that speak to how someone will perform in office), if well-crafted and credible, are most likely to have the desired outcome and, hence, are the ones that targeted candidates can least afford to ignore. We use data from two experiments, first, to confirm this assumption and, second, to assess the relative effectiveness of five response types: counterattacks, denials, counterimaging, justifications, and charges of mudslinging. Our results suggest that while some responses work better than others, there are a variety of ways, both positive and negative, to “reframe” a campaign attack so as to diminish its potential impact on voters.

Despite what many Americans believe, there is little evidence that increased campaign negativity has contributed to the loss of public trust in government in recent decades. In this article, we consider the relationship between negative campaigning and trust in a different light. The “figure-ground hypothesis” suggests that negative information is more likely than positive information to shape people's attitudes and behavior, in part because negativity “stands out” in a world where most of us have positive expectations of others. Accordingly, we posit that negative campaign ads are most effective among those who possess a high level of trust in their political leaders. The catch is that high trust is uncommon in U.S. politics today, in which case negative appeals may play to a smaller audience than in the past. Our data indicate, however, that a well-conceived negative campaign ad can influence voter choice regardless of one's feelings about government. Related Articles Jones, David A., Kathleen Ferraiolo, and Jennifer Byrne. 2011. “Selective Media Exposure and Partisan Differences about Sarah Palin's Candidacy.” Politics and Policy 39 (2): 195-221. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2011.00288.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false Caillier, James. 2010. “Citizen Trust, Political Corruption, and Voting Behavior: Connecting the Dots.” Politics and Policy 38 (5): 1015-1035. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2010.00267.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false Lewis, Gregory B., Marc A. Rogers, and Kenneth Sherrill. 2011. “Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Voters in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election.” Politics and Policy 39 (5): 655-677. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2011.00315.x/abstract Related Media Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2013. “Trust in Government Nears Record Low, But Most Federal Agencies Are Viewed Favorably.” October 18. http://www.people-press.org/2013/10/18/trust-in-government-nears-record-low-but-most-federal-agencies-are-viewed-favorably/ University of Wisconsin Advertising Project. 2008. “Overview.” http://wiscadproject.wisc.edu/ Efowler. 2012. “Presidential Ads 70 Percent Negative in 2012, Up from 9 Percent in 2008.” http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/2012/05/02/jump-in-negativity/ A pesar de lo que muchos estadounidenses creen, existe poca evidencia que indique que el aumento en la negatividad de las campanas ha contribuido a la perdida de confianza publica en el gobierno durante las ultimas decadas. En este articulo analizamos la relacion entre la negatividad en las campanas y la confianza desde un enfoque diferente. La llamada hipotesis FGH (por sus siglas en ingles) sugiere que la informacion negativa es mas propensa que la informacion positiva a ser usada para establecer el comportamiento y actitud de las personas, en parte debido a que la negatividad “sobresale” en un mundo donde la mayoria de las personas tiene expectativas positivas de los demas. Por lo tanto, argumentamos que los anuncios que se enfocan en la negatividad son mas efectivos entre aquellas personas que tienen gran confianza en sus lideres politicos. El problema es que un nivel alto de confianza en la politica de los Estados Unidos es poco comun hoy en dia, en cuyo caso la negatividad puede estar dirigida a una pequena audiencia. Sin embargo, nuestros resultados indican que una campana negativa debidamente planeada puede influenciar la eleccion del elector sin importar la actitud actual hacia el gobierno.

Sir John Pringle published Observations on the Diseases of the Army in April 1752. Over the next two decades it was proclaimed by French, British and German authors as the premier volume on the new subject of military medicine. Although Pringle's experiences in the War of the Austrian Succession furnished clinical substance, his education at St Andrews and Edinburgh universities, and medical instruction under Hermann Boerhaave, provided the enduring ethical foundation for the theory and practice of the art by medical and line officers.

Prior research has focused almost exclusively on value conflict as a source of attitudinal ambivalence, with mixed and often modest empirical results. Using data from a 2004 survey of voters in Florida, we examine multiple potential sources of ambivalence about social welfare policy. We find that ambivalence is rooted in value conflict, as well as in affective conflict, ambivalence about government, partisan ambivalence, value importance, and group membership. Our results suggest that while value conflict is one of several factors that foster ambivalence, it does not have the greatest effect.

Obtaining and maintaining a military force hearty enough for the trials of campaign and combat is the concern of military hygiene. It has been a challenge for governments and commanders for centuries. Empirical practices in recruiting, training, and maintaining service members gave way to more scientific, evidenced-based practices of the 18th century, and the research-driven, laboratory-proven methods of the late 19th century. As science made military medicine predictable, it widened the intellectual and professional gap between commander and medical officer, weakening trust and hindering communication. It also distanced the medical officer from the more mundane health and fitness concerns of service members by transforming military hygiene into military preventive medicine. Medical misadventures consequent to this state of affairs continue into the 21st century and will remain until a philosophical and educational shift in the value of military hygiene occurs.

Background: To sustain progress toward injury reduction and other health promotion goals, public health organizations need a systematic approach based on data and an evaluation of existing scientific evidence on prevention. This paper describes a process and criteria developed to system- atically and objectively define prevention program and policy priorities. Methods: Military medical surveillance data were obtained and summarized, and a working group of epidemiology and injury experts was formed. After reviewing the available data, the working group used predefined criteria to score leading military unintentional injury causes on five main criteria that assessed factors contributing to program and policy success: (1) importance of the problem, (2) effectiveness of existing prevention strategies, (3) feasibility of establishing programs and policies, (4) timeliness of implementation and results, and (5) potential for evaluation. Injury problems were ranked by total median score. Results: Causes with the highest total median scores were physical training (34 points), military parachuting (32 points), privately-owned vehicle crashes (31 points), sports (29 points), falls (27 points), and military vehicle crashes (27 points). Conclusions: Using a data-driven, criteria-based process, three injury causes (physical training, military parachuting, and privately owned-vehicle crashes) with the greatest potential for successful program and policy implementation were identified. Such information is useful for public health practitioners and policymakers who must prioritize among health problems that are competing for limited resources. The process and criteria could be adapted to systematically assess and prioritize health issues affecting other communities.

Evidence suggests that mistrust of government contributes directly to a lack of support for social welfare programs. An alternative explanation, however, is that many citizens are ambivalent concerning government and the role that it should play in society today and, as result, are less likely to support such programs. Based on our analysis of data from a 2004 telephone survey of Florida residents, we conclude that, first, ambivalent feelings concerning the federal, state, and local levels of government in the United States are fairly common; second, ambivalence has consequences for people's opinions on matters of public policy—specifically, those with conflicted feelings are less likely to endorse progressive action in the social welfare realm; third, self-identified conservatives tend to be more ambivalent concerning government than liberals; and finally, the observed negative relationship between ambivalence and social welfare liberalism is especially pronounced among conservatives.

Previous research has shown that mass perceptions about the sizes of minority populations are influenced by sociodemographic, threat, and context variables. This paper extends the analysis to a population group that has not previously been considered from a national perspective, that is, gays and lesbians. Our analysis of a statewide survey of Florida residents in 2002 shows that people in sociodemographic groups associated with low levels of political knowledge were more likely to report higher estimates of the gay population. Threat variables and objective context had relatively little impact, but estimates also were higher among individuals who reported personal contact with gays and lesbians.

Elections are sometimes seen as legitimizing institutions, promoting system-level support among citizens by allowing them to have input into the political process. However, prior research has found that this is less true among supporters of losing candidates, who often exhibit lower levels of political trust and satisfaction with democracy. We analyze NES survey data from 1964 to 2004, as well as surveys from Florida and the nation following the controversial presidential election of 2000, and find that (1) losers exhibit lower levels of political trust, satisfaction with democracy, confidence that government is responsive to citizens, and in early 2001 were less inclined to extend legitimacy to the newly elected president; (2) losers also are more likely to endorse “rationalizations” as explanations of the election outcome, to be less satisfied with the choice of candidates offered in the election, and to perceive the electoral process as unfair; and (3) voter interpretations of the election mediate the relationships between winning/losing on the one hand, and trust, responsiveness, and satisfaction with democracy on the other. These findings suggest that the so-called legitimizing function of elections is far from a universal phenomenon.

The state of research on media effects is one of the most notable embarrassments of modern social science. The pervasiveness of the mass media and their virtual monopoly over the presentation of many kinds of information must suggest to reasonable observers that what these media say and how they say it has enormous social and political consequences. Nevertheless, the scholarly literature has been much better at refuting, qualifying, and circumscribing the thesis of media impact than at supporting it. (Bartels, 1993, p. 267) *As director, adjunct professor, and former student, respectively.

This study is based on data from a three-wave telephone panel survey conducted during the 1998 governor's race in Florida. The evidence suggests that a considerable amount of issue-related learning (having to do with candidate policy stands and group endorsements) took place over the course of the general election campaign, though substantial differences were observed from one issue area to the next. Further analysis indicates that learning was especially likely to occur among voters (a) who were more knowledgeable about political affairs to start with (confirming that the so-called “knowledge gap” may be exacerbated during campaigns), (b) who scored high on a measure of advertising negativity (for one candidate but not the other), and (c) who early in the campaign, read their local newspaper less frequently. Consistent with prior research, TV news appears to have done little or nothing to boost issue-based learning among the electorate.

Objective. Although national surveys indicate that Americans have become more accepting of the prospect of a Jewish presidential candidate, this could reflect some voters' desire to be seen as having socially correct opinions. The present study uses a survey technique known as the “list experiment” to assess public reaction to the nomination of Jewish candidates for high office. Methods. Two telephone surveys of registered voters in Florida, each employing the list-experiment methodology, were conducted in October 2000 and May/June 2002. Results. We find only limited evidence of negative affect directed at either the vice presidential candidacy of Joseph Lieberman in 2000 or a hypothetical (unnamed) Jewish presidential candidate who might choose to run in the future. Conclusions. Although there still are enough voters with anti-Semitic views to affect the outcome of a close election, their numbers do not appear to be as great as some observers have feared.

In the winter of 1998-1999 an outbreak of pneumococcal pneumonia occurred among Ranger students undergoing high-intensity training. Thirty pneumonia cases (attack rate = 12.6%) were identified among a group of 239 students. Eighteen students were hospitalized; Streptococcus pneumoniae-positive cultures were detected in 11 (61.1%) of these 18 hospitalized cases. Pneumococci were also identified in throat swabs of 30 (13.6%) of 221 nonhospitalized students surveyed. Serum antipneumolysin seroconversions were detected in 30 {18.3%} of 164 students tested. An association between development of serum antipneumolysin antibody and pneumococcal pharyngeal carriage/colonization was found. Of 30 seroconverters, eight (26.7%) had S. pneumoniae-positive cultures compared with only 17 (12.7%) of 134 nonseroconverters (relative risks = 2.02, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-4.02, p = 0.05), The outbreak was controlled by administrating low-dose, oral azithromycin prophylaxis (250 mg weekly for 2 weeks) and was associated with a 69% reduction in pneumococcal carriage and a 94% reduction in pneumonia rates.

Recent research has recognized that many people simultaneously hold positive and negative attitudes about important political issues. This paper reviews the concept of attitudinal ambivalence and introduces a survey measure of ambivalence adapted from the experimental literature. An analysis of two statewide telephone surveys of Florida voters reveals that (1) a number of voters have ambivalent attitudes about abortion rights; (2) the amount of ambivalence varies according to the circumstances (elective versus traumatic) under which an abortion is obtained; (3) ambivalence about elective abortions is essentially unrelated to ambivalence about traumatic abortions; (4) voters who support abortion rights are more ambivalent about elective abortions than about traumatic abortions, whereas the pattern is reversed for abortion rights opponents; and (5) extreme views in support of or opposition to abortion rights can sometimes mitigate the amount of ambivalence felt by voters.

In anticipation of U.S. forces deploying to Bosnia-Herzegovina, plans were established to conduct medical surveillance of all military service members. This surveillance would provide the Department of Defense with an overview of the hospitalization and outpatient morbidity experience of U.S. forces. Standardized collection of medical data from all U.S. camps using 14 diagnostic categories based on International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, codes began in March 1996. Special assessments for hantavirus and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) infection risk were also conducted. The average disease and nonbattle injury rate for U.S. forces was 7.1 per 100 soldiers per week. Injuries accounted for 28% of medical visits, whereas undefined/other visits accounted for 33%. The majority of remaining visits were for respiratory (14%), dermatologic (10%), and gastrointestinal (6%) complaints. There was one confirmed and one suspected case of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome; only 0.1% of individuals (2 of 1,913) tested seroconverted to hantavirus during deployment. No cases of TBE were reported, and the overall low seroconversion rate (0.42%, 4 seroconversions among 959 unimmunized personnel) reflected a very low risk of infection with TBE-related viruses. Operation Joint Endeavor and follow-on Operations Joint Guard and Joint Forge have been extremely healthy deployments.

This report describes a series of hyponatremia hospitalizations associated with heat-related injuries and apparent over-hydration. Data from the U.S. Army Inpatient Data System were used to identify all hospitalizations for hyposmolality/hyponatremia from 1996 and 1997. Admissions were considered as probable cases of overhydration hyponatremia if this was the only, or primary, diagnosis or if it was associated with any heat-related diagnosis. Seventeen medical records were identified, and the events leading to hospitalization were analyzed. The average serum sodium level was 122 +/- 5 mmol/L (range, 115-130 mmol/L). All 17 patients were soldiers attending training schools. Seventy-seven percent of hyponatremia cases occurred in the first 4 weeks of training. Nine patients had water intake rates equal to or exceeding 2 quarts per hour. Most patients were in good health before developing hyponatremia. The most common symptoms were mental status changes (88%), emesis (65%), nausea (53%), and seizures (31%). In 5 of 6 cases in which extensive history was known, soldiers drank excess amounts of water before developing symptoms and as part of field treatment. The authors conclude that hyponatremia resulted from too aggressive fluid replacement practices for soldiers in training status. The fluid replacement policy was revised with consideration given to both climatic heat stress and physical activity levels. Field medical policy should recognize the possibility of overhydration. Specific evacuation criteria should be established for exertional illness.

Altitude injuries, defined as injuries sustained by military static line parachutists before ground impact, have not been reviewed for 50 years. There are indications that these injuries are increasing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Between May 1, 1994, and April 30, 1996, surveillance was conducted for parachute-related injuries and altitude injuries at Fort Bragg. The incidence of all jump-related injuries was 8.1/1,000 aircraft exits. Significant risk factors for injury included being 30 years of age or older (p < 0.001) and being female (p = 0.003). The overall incidence of altitude injuries was noted to be 0.46/1,000 aircraft exits. Risk factors for altitude injury included being 40 years of age or older (p = 0.005) and in the rank of E-1 to E-3 (p = 0.0001). Fifty-four percent of injuries occurred during exiting before complete parachute deployment, and 46% occurred during the opening shock of the parachute. Mechanisms of injury included static line entanglement (33%), riser/suspension-line entanglement (46%), aircraft strikes (21%), unsecured equipment strikes (1%), and opening shock deceleration (1%). The majority of severe altitude injuries are caused by riser/suspension-line entanglement (63%) and involve the knee joint (37%). Although the incidence of altitude injury is quite small, the potential risk for career-threatening and/or life-threatening injury is great. This risk can be reduced by appropriate training and attention to detail.