Donald Granberg’s research while affiliated with University of Missouri and other places

Data on self-placement and political perception on an ideology scale from surveys of adults in Sweden and the U.S. were analyzed and compared. Consensus in political perception, the correlation between perception of the party's and its leader's position, distinctiveness and polarization, subjective agreement, and a rational democratic coefficient were all substantially higher in Sweden. In spite of these differences, evidence of assimilation and contrast effects in perception was observed within both countries.

Data from election studies in Sweden, the Netherlands, and the U.S. were analyzed to test the external validity of Sears' person positivity hypothesis. Although people in Sweden and the Netherlands did not rate their preferred party less favorably than that party's leader, overall the results in those two countries tended to support the person positivity hypothesis. However, the U.S. data indicated, contrary to the person positivity hypothesis, that people rated political parties more favorably than the nominees, or the people competing for the nominations, of those parties. An alternative, the principal actor hypothesis, was offered which is compatible with the data from all three countries. This hypothesis is that positivity or leniency will be extended in judgments that do not involve the principal actors in a political system. This accords with our findings that in the strong party systems of Sweden and the Netherlands, parties are judged less favorably than party leaders, while in the weak party system of the U.S., parties are judged more favorably than the individuals nominated by the parties.

Asch's (1956) research on group pressure to conform implied that it is difficult to be a lone dissenter. Extending this to the analysis of voting patterns in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1953-2001 terms, it was found that of 4,178 decisions, the 8-1 split was the least common (10%). Unanimous decisions were most common (35%), followed by 5-4 splits (21%), 6-3 splits (20%), and 7-2 splits (14%). Large differences were found among the 29 Justices serving during this period as to how often they were lone dissenters, led by Justice William Douglas, who issued lone dissents on about 6% of the decisions on which he voted.

A panel of the Swedish electorate in 1985 and 1988, and a comparable panel comprised of members of the Swedish parliament, were analyzed for constraint and stability of attitudes. It was found that members of parliament showed considerably more constraint among attitudes and more attitude stability than the public. Among the public, members of political parties showed more constraint and stability than other voters who, in turn, showed more constraint and stability than nonvoters. A similar ordering was found in the link between specific issue attitudes and an abstract left-right dimension. Societal elites responding to the same questions showed more attitudinal constraint than the public but less than members of parliament. Thus, even at the elite level politics matters in the sense that involvement in politics enhances the degree of constraint between attitudes on contemporary issues.

Abstract Two implausible hypotheses implied by the directional theory of issue voting were tested using six Swedish national election studies, 1979–1994. The hypotheses that (a) centrists are indifferent toward parties, and that (b) people leaning slightly in one direction prefer an extremely intense party on the same side were not supported. However, alternative hypotheses from proximity theory were also not supported consistently. Self–placement on the left–right dimension and liking for a party form a logistic function. Party set and latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment are concepts that may prove useful in understanding this relationship.

Objective. The purpose of this article was to test the generality of wishful thinking by comparing mass and elite beliefs concerning the future of nuclear power in Sweden. Methods. Data from 11 (1986–1996) surveys of the public and a 1988 survey of the Swedish Parliament that included questions concerning preference and expectation regarding nuclear power were examined. Results. A tendency toward wishful thinking occurred consistently across years among the masses, but was considerably stronger among the political elite (members of parliament). The anti–nuclear segment of the public showed a weakened tendency to expect a preferred outcome. Conclusion. Ambiguity of the future outcome, involvement, and knowledge are discussed as key factors in determining the level of wishful thinking in a given context.

In the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD), a contestant makes a guess as to which door conceals a prize. The host then reveals the contents of an unchosen, incorrect door, and then gives the contestant a choice of sticking with the initial guess or switching to the remaining door. Given certain crucial assumptions, the rational solution is to switch. In the present study, subjects played 60 trials of either a standard four-door MHD or a new version of the MHD with unequal probabilities. Each has a counterintuitive solution. Subjects showed a strong tendency to stick when they should switch. Some learning took place, but switching in the standard condition reached a plateau. The results indicate that the equal probability condition is more suitable for studying satisficing, while the unequal probability condition is better for studying insightful learning.

Data from the General Social Survey, 1972–1996 were examined to see whether index reliability changes when the don't know respondents are included. On the abortion and civil liberty attitude indexes, reliability remained the same regardless of whether the don't knows were included or excluded. Reliability actually increased somewhat when the don't know respondents were included on two cognitive indexes measuring vocabulary knowledge and reasoning performance. When don't knows are excluded by list-wise deletion, attrition occurs very disproportionately among the least educated and oldest groups. Since there is no trade-off of increased reliability for decreased representativeness, list-wise deletion of cases is hard to justify.

Suicide data from Sweden (1911-1993) and New Zealand (1975-1995) were used to test a hypothesis derived as an extension of the Seasonal Affective Disorder concept. Contrary to the hypothesis, but similar to what Durkheim had reported regarding Central Europe in the nineteenth century, suicides peaked in late spring (May in Sweden, November in New Zealand). Durkheim's hypothesis that there would be more monthly variation in suicides in rural areas was strongly supported. Our hypothesis is that people abandon life when it is least difficult because of a disjuncture between experience and expectation.

Students in Brazil, China, Sweden, and the United States were compared as to how they responded to a two-stage conditional probability problem. In each culture, there was not only a significant tendency to stick with an initial decision when they should stick, but also to stick when they should switch. On this type of problem, the four cultures did not differ significantly.