Mark Joslyn

University of Kansas | KU · Department of Political Science

Objective We hypothesize that gun ownership among women is an important determinant of political engagement. Methods First, using 2013 Pew Research Center data, we examine different types of political participation concerning gun policy. Next, we examine data from a survey experiment embedded in a unique June 2017 national survey of nearly 900 gun...

Rationale: Although obesity represents a potential public health crisis, our understanding of public perceptions of obesity, emotional responses to the obese, and related policy preferences is limited. Objective: We employed Weiner's attribution theory of controllability (Weiner, 1988, 2011) to examine perceived causes of obesity, emotional resp...

Previous studies show that geographical distance to polling locations represents a genuine cost of political participation and influences voter turnout. Here we examine whether travel costs are equally distributed across party members and do not manifest themselves randomly. Methods: Using 2016 data obtained from a County Clerk’s Office (N = 81,323...

Past research suggests that people substantially overestimate the size of minority populations. Labeled “innumeracy,” inflated estimates of minority populations can have a negative impact on intergroup relations and influence policy attitudes toward minority groups. Our research examines people’s estimates of the gun owner population in the United...

In this article, we examine the effects of individual anxiety after the 2016 Orlando, Florida, mass shooting, which killed 49 people and wounded 58 others. Similar to prior research on the influence of anxiety, after the Orlando shooting anxious citizens supported policies and institutions perceived as protective and capable of minimizing future ri...

Civil unrest and riots in the U.S. engender considerable attention. Much of the civil unrest from the 1960s, and recent incidents, likely result from many factors, including poverty, police practices, and negative motivations of some unrest participants. However, not all observers view these events from the same perspective. We contend that individ...

Gun Owner Population Appendix

Prior research indicates cognitive ability, perceived threats and context cues influence people’s estimates about the size of minority populations. This article extends the literature in three ways. First, the analyses focuses on gun owners. Ironically, this minority group receives significant political attention yet most people substantially overe...

In this article, we examine the individual predictors that are responsible for accurate beliefs about the link between vaccinations and autism. We then show how these beliefs affect policy preferences about vaccines. We derive two hypotheses from motivated reasoning theory and test these on national survey data from Gallup and CBS News. Republicans...

Numerous recent encounters between police officers and Black citizens have resulted in the deaths of African American men and have drawn renewed public scrutiny of police practices. We examine the public’s attributions about these encounters. Does the public perceive violent confrontations between police officers and Black citizens as a result of b...

Existing literature on numeracy suggests that people are likely to perceive out-groups as larger if the group is perceived as threating. However, some studies also suggest that numeracy is a function of wishful thinking or even a lack of political knowledge. We engage the literature on numeracy of the gay and lesbian population by employing data fr...

Objectives The attitudes of gun owners and nongun owners appear more polarized in the last two decades. We posit that divisions between gun owners and nongun owners reflect emerging political identities, especially among gun owners. Methods Using data from the General Social Survey (1972–2012) we examine if and when this gun ownership divergence b...

Objective Individuals develop causal narratives that help explain events, behaviors, and conditions. Individuals ascribe events and behaviors to controllable components, such as individual choice, or uncontrollable components, such as broader forces in the environment. We join attribution theory with motivated reasoning and outline how gun ownershi...

The distinctly American fascination with guns and gun culture is perhaps most visible in modern entertainment. Yet, guns and gun-related issues seem to divide people, driving a wedge between rural and urban residents, women and men, less and more educated, conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans. Our present understanding of social an...

We posit that individuals develop causal stories to explain the world around them, including events, behaviors, and conditions in society. These are narratives that attribute causes to controllable components, such as individual choices, or uncontrollable components, such as broader forces in the environment. We use attribution theory to understand...

Objectives: Individuals employ causal reasoning to explain the world around them, including political events, group behavior, and conditions in society. People may attribute causes of behavior to controllable components, such as individual choices, or uncontrollable elements, such as broader forces in the environment. To this, we add biological or...

Appendix for “Genetic Attributions, Immutability and Stereotypical Judgments: An Analysis of Homosexuality” Social Science Quarterly, Forthcoming, 2016

An alert, informed electorate is considered vital to a robust democracy, and the main path to that electorate includes formal education. The educated citizen is politically attentive, knowledgeable, and participatory, and the uneducated citizen is not. However, this fact conceals a less favorable effect of education. Educated citizens possess the c...

Studies show that salience of an issue influences the behavior of political elites, policy responses, and the attitudes of the public. Yet while the effects of salience are given considerable attention, less is known about the factors that produce salience. Specifically, what are the determinants of an issue's salience? We examine salience of energ...

We offer an expanded version of attribution theory that incorporates macro- and micro-elements. We then use this theory on a test case and propose an explanation of how individual beliefs about the origins of homosexuality have changed over time and become polarized along partisan lines. We argue that attributions on the origins of homosexuality ha...

Objective We employ theories of causal reasoning to understand attributions about the 2007 Virginia Tech and 2011 Tucson shootings. We argue that attributions stem from two motives: (1) a partisan motivation to perceive events consistent with party attachments, and (2) a drive to minimize the cognitive burdens associated with extensive reasoning pr...

Individuals develop causal stories about the world around them that explain events, behaviors, and conditions. These stories may attribute causes to controllable components, such as individual choice, or uncontrollable components, such as broader forces in the environment. We employ attribution theory to outline how identities may shape causal attr...

As a political issue, death and dying topics only sometimes reach the political agenda. However, some issues, such as physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have been highly salient. This article explores attitudes toward PAS by examining the malleability of opinion when respondents are exposed to issue frames and when specific messengers present those f...

Individuals develop causal stories about the world around them that explain events, behaviors, and conditions. These stories may attribute causes to controllable components, such as individual choice, or uncontrollable components, such as broader forces in the environment. Here we employ motivated reasoning to understand causal attributions the 200...

In this study, we employ Weiner's attribution theory of controllability to examine beliefs about the origins of homosexuality. If the cause of homosexuality is perceived as controllable (learned, environmental, or an individual choice), negative affect toward homosexuals and reduced support for policies relevant to the group can be expected. If the...

Education is a powerful cognitive resource that undermines the persuasiveness of political propaganda. However, little is known about the conditions that weaken this resource. This study examines whether lopsided media coverage preceding and during the initial phases of the Iraq War provided an information environment sufficient to overcome the pos...

Objective. The objective of this article is to examine whether racial tolerance attitudes are influenced by the character of the urban subculture in which individuals live. Specifically, is there a significant association between concept of creative class and racial tolerance among white survey respondents? Methods. The Social Capital Community Ben...

Although debate concerning the theory of evolution is part of an ongoing U.S. dialogue over the proper role of religion in society, academics have provided little in the way of systematic understanding of public opinion on this issue. Important questions, such as the relative influence of socializing agents-religion and education-in shaping attitud...

Objective. An individual's personal experiences and perception of the collective experience are often linked to political attitudes, especially those concerning the national economy. In this article, we examine whether personal concern about terrorism and perceptions of public concern about terrorism affect attitudes about counterterrorism policies...

In political disputes, issue frames set parameters for debate and shape which view dominates. This study expands issue framing research to examine the influence of frames on the perception of future terrorist threats as well as subsequent support for related counterterrorism policies. We test several hypotheses using data from an experimental field...

Undoubtedly, framing political issues is an effective means of influencing the distribution of opinion. But while most studies have shown the effectiveness of alternative issue frames on opinion, they largely ignore the role of the messenger. Our research examines whether message content or messengers are more important in influencing opinion. Four...

Few would dispute that religion has played a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of human relationships, including marriage, and what types of relationships are permitted. However, science, especially biology, has also played an important role in government regulation of marriage (Bittles and Neel 1994; Ottenheimer 1990; Dupuis 2002; Elli...

Recent studies have documented a “third-person effect” whereby people are found to judge others as more influenced than themselves by the mass media. Meanwhile, contemporary research on issue framing has demonstrated the powerful role of mass media in shaping people's political judgments. But are the perceptual judgments that define third-person ef...

Memory plays a key role in many theories of politics, yet the determinants of inaccurate political memories have not been the subject of much investigation. Combining a dosage-resistance theory of political communications with a theory of memory lapse and reconstruction, it is predicted that a clearly identifiable cluster of traits ought to render...

Can a school curriculum influence the political socialization of students? And if so, can such socialization “trickle up” to influence the political socialization of these students' parents? We examine the effects of Kids Voting USA in Kansas to answer these questions. By the 1996 presidential election, Kids Voting was implemented in several Kansas...

This article examines the relationship between membership in voluntary associations and political tolerance attitudes. Though the extensive literature on social capital posits a relationship between group involvement and political tolerance, empirical scrutiny of this proposition has yet to emerge. Specifically, we hypothesize that group membership...

Objective. A growing body of literature on issue framing has demonstrated the conditional influence of issue frames on self–reported opinion. The effects of frames are conditioned by message content, the medium of communication, and the predispositions of respondents. However, the literature has yet to explore the influence of issue frames on respo...

Perhaps it is ironic that a book about rational judgment is entitled Affective Intelligence. This is a rousing and provoking effort, with an unmistakable double agenda. One objective is to dispute conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between affect and reason, especially the rational choice vision of political judgment. A second is to est...

Data from the National Election Studies were examined in an effort to isolate cognitive dissonance of two kinds: dissonance arising from a behavioral commitment in the form of voting, and dissonance arising from inconsistencies associated with having supported the losing candidate. Feeling thermometer ratings of the two principal presidential candi...

Political events and policy discussion set parameters for debate and help to determine how an issue comes to be defined. Though existing research has examined the effects of alternative representations of political issues on public opinion, less attention has been given to highly salient issues, such as gun policy, and the potential effect of frami...

This article focuses on individuals' willingness to attribute rape effects to pornography. Using General Social Survey data from 1975 and 1986, the paper examines (1) the attitudinal and experiential variables that shape acceptance of this causal attribution; (2) the impact of elite-level efforts to re-frame the pornography issue to incorporate thi...

Objective. This article tests the relationship between involvement in voluntary associations and attitudinal changes considered supportive of democratic principles and system legitimacy. Methods. We utilize 1996 pre- and postelection American National Election Studies panel data to test the proposed relationship. The effects of reported levels of g...

This article examines the extent to which a change in the information environment affected opinion of a recent gun safety ballot initiative in Washington. Through content analysis of newspaper stories and documentation of expenditures of competing interests, the authors are able to detect a discernable shift in the information environment during th...

This article examines the extent to which a change in the information environment affected opinion of a recent gun safety ballot initiative in Washington. Through content analysis of newspaper stories and documentation of expenditures of competing interests, the authors are able to detect a discernable shift in the information environment during th...

Of key importance to groups in a democracy is the political representation of their interests in the policy process. The most obvious strategy of groups to achieve representation is to elect officials that identify with group interests. Our research examines the political representation of lesbian and gay interests, exploring the influence of openl...

While previous research has demonstrated that representations of opinion distributions can impact individual-level judgments, the perceptual processes that yield estimates of that opinion are not yet fully explored. This study focuses exclusively on the association between personal opinion and perceived pubic opinion, examining its magnitude across...

This paper examines the impact of the public on individual opinion. Employing survey-based experiments, I demonstrate public influence to be considerable, yet the magnitude, direction, and significance of effect depends critically on the target of public sentiment and the political predispositions of the perceiver. A theoretical model is developed...

Broadly, the task of this paper is to examine the connection between social and individual opinion. More specifically, does consensus information, as manifested in the relative attractiveness of candidate appearances, affect candidate evaluations? If so, are differences significant, and are all individuals equally affected? By employing an experime...

This paper examines the extent to which attention to television news impacted affective evaluations of presidential candidates during the last two months of the 1992 campaign. Our analyses show that attentiveness to campaign news significantly influenced evaluations in a manner consistent with the tone of news coverage for each candidate. We disagg...

This article modifies an earlier study by Bond and Fleisher that employed regression analysis to predict House members' support of Bush in 1989. The sample frame used in that investigation (1959-1974) to produce estimates is found to be inappropriate, and consequently, an alternative sample is offered. Drawing support from the larger literature on...

Individuals develop causal stories about the world around them that explain events, behaviors, and conditions. These stories may attribute causes to controllable components, such as individual choice, or uncontrollable components, such as systematic forces in the environment. Here we employ motivated reasoning and attribution theory to understand c...

Abstract will be provided by author.

Abstract will be provided by author.

An alert, informed electorate is considered vital to a robust democracy, and the main path to that electorate includes formal education. The educated citizen is politically attentive, knowledgeable, and participatory, and the uneducated citizen is not. However, this fact conceals a less favorable effect of education. Educated citizens possess the c...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington University, 1996. Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references.