The Dynamics of Partisan Conflict on Congressional Approval

Ramirez, Mark D.

doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2009.00394.x

Cited by 98 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…And positive media coverage predicted public approval, r(193) = 0.26, P < 0.001. Media coverage explained the link between Congressional language and public approval, B = 1.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [0.31, 5.04] in a mediation analysis (SI Text) (18). In addition to an indirect effect via media coverage, a direct effect of Congressional language on public approval remained, B = 36.30, 95% CI = [29.05, 43.55], suggesting that the direct (C-SPAN) and indirect (media) channels may work in tandem to explain how Congressional language influences public opinion.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

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A decline in prosocial language helps explain public disapproval of the US Congress

Frimer

Gebauer

Zhu

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Talking about helping others makes a person seem warm and leads to social approval. This work examines the real world consequences of this basic, social-cognitive phenomenon by examining whether record-low levels of public approval of the US Congress may, in part, be a product of declining use of prosocial language during Congressional debates. A text analysis of all 124 million words spoken in the House of Representatives between 1996 and 2014 found that declining levels of prosocial language strongly predicted public disapproval of Congress 6 mo later. Warm, prosocial language still predicted public approval when removing the effects of societal and global factors (e.g., the September 11 attacks) and Congressional efficacy (e.g., passing bills), suggesting that prosocial language has an independent, direct effect on social approval.US Congress | language | impression formation | public approval | LIWC A s recently as 2002, public approval of Congress was reliably over 50% and as high as 84%. In late 2013, though, public approval reached an all-time low, with less than 10% of Americans expressing support (1). What caused this dramatic decline in public approval in just over a decade? One explanation is that the public held Congress responsible for societal and global problems (e.g., a weak economy) (2, 3). A second explanation is that the public disapproves of ineffective governance. For example, public approval of Congress tends to drop when Republicans and Democrats are polarized against one another and when Congress conflicts with the President (4, 5). We test a third explanation that has less to do with action and more to do with talk (6). We suggest that recent public disapproval partly resulted from the disappearance of warm, prosocial language in Congressional discourse.Previous experimental research has shown that presenting a warm and prosocial demeanor increases social approval (7). People reveal a wealth of information about their feelings and intentions through verbal communication (8-10). The speaker's underlying motives notwithstanding, talking about helping others makes positive impressions upon an audience (11). We investigated whether this well-documented finding can explain public perceptions of Congress. Specifically, we asked whether the recent rise of public disapproval of Congress is predicted by declining prosocial language of elected representatives.To measure prosocial language, we computer analyzed all 123,927,807 words spoken in session of the US House of Representatives between 1996 and 2014. Our approach was to look for linguistic markers of prosocial language; we used content analysis software (12) to calculate the proportion of words in the target text that matched entries in a validated dictionary of prosocial words (13). We then compared levels of prosocial language within each month of Congress with their approval ratings by the American public (14) and found a striking match. Fig. 1 shows that levels of prosocial language and the public's approval followed the same trajectory ...

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second explanation is that the public disapproves of ineffective governance. For example, public approval of Congress tends to drop when Republicans and Democrats are polarized against one another and when Congress conflicts with the President (4,5). We test a third explanation that has less to do with action and more to do with talk (6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A decline in prosocial language helps explain public disapproval of the US Congress

Frimer

Gebauer

Zhu

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Research has also tied low public approval of Congress to the inability of the membership to live up to the public's overall expectations (Kimball & Patterson, 1997) and the institution's tendency to engage in largely unpopular-although democratic-political processes, such as extensive debate, excessive partisanship, conflict, and compromise (Binder, 2003(Binder, , 2015Doherty, 2015;Durr, Gilmour, & Wolbrecht, 1997;Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 1995, 2002Mann & Ornstein, 2006, 2012Ramirez, 2009;Sinclair, 2011). Also, recent computerized sentiment analysis has linked the decline of prosocial language on the floor to the erosion of congressional approval over time (Frimer, Aquino, Gerbauer, Zhu, & Oakes, 2015).…”

Section: Chaptermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ramirez (2009) concluded that the public's desire to mitigate procedural partisan conflict among legislators is more important than the substance of policy actions. Harbridge and Malhotra (2011) find partisan conflict reduces public support for Congress, but also note that the partisan public responds favorably to their own representatives who act in a partisan manner.…”

Section: The Legislative Process and Public Opinion Toward Congressmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the definitions of the legislative process varies slightly, almost all contain the same core concepts. These concepts include open disagreement of competing interests, compromise, inefficiency, and some degree of adherence to procedural norms (Crick, 1992;Durr, Gilmour, & Wolbrecht, 1997;Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 1995;Ramirez, 2009). …”

Section: The Legislative Process and Public Opinion Toward Congressmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advances in Research Using the C-SPAN Archives

2016

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Volatility Spillovers in the Spanish Food Marketing Chain: The Case of Tomato

Sidhoum

Serra

2015

Agribusiness

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This research aims to assess volatility spillovers along the Spanish tomato marketing chain. A multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model is fit to weekly tomato prices at different levels of the marketing chain (producers, wholesalers and consumers). Empirical results suggest significant price transmission and volatility spillovers between different market levels. While causality links flow in all directions, volatility transmission is stronger from the consumer to the producer and wholesale prices rather than the other way around. Consumer price first and second moments are quite rigid, while producer and wholesale prices tend to suffer from higher instability.

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The Dynamics of Partisan Conflict on Congressional Approval

Cited by 98 publications

References 49 publications

A decline in prosocial language helps explain public disapproval of the US Congress

A decline in prosocial language helps explain public disapproval of the US Congress

Advances in Research Using the C-SPAN Archives

Volatility Spillovers in the Spanish Food Marketing Chain: The Case of Tomato

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