Working Papers

Basic Human Values and Partisan Cues (Dissertation Chapter)

Under review at American Politics Research

Are human values durable in a polarized political world? Scholars have long believed that humans hold durable and universal value structure, called the Basic Human Values that not only shape personal preferences, but also constrains and shapes political preferences at the same time. However, scholars have yet to test the reciprocal effects of politics on basic human values. This paper tests the conventional wisdom on human values’ durability for the first time, using partisan cues. Using survey experiments, I find that partisans adjust their value expressions when they receive party cues more favorably when given in-party cues and refrain from values that are prompted with out-party cues. Moreover, I show that Democrats and Republicans value positions almost flip flop depending on whether they receive in-party cue or out-party cue. Thus, this paper gives the first evidence that partisan cues in the polarized American context, can even shift human value positions, and suggest the possibility of a more genuine change in value if people are consistently exposed to such party cues.

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Can Values Pull Us Together? The effects of value rhetoric on reducing polarization (Dissertation Chapter)

Can Basic Human Values be utilized to reduce affective polarization? While focusing on shared values and common goals is a well-known component of the optimal conditions for mitigating intergroup tensions (Allport 1954; Pettigrew and Tropp 2006), study of values as the medium to reduce prejudice and affective polarization remains surprisingly unexplored. According to existing research, 10 Basic Human Values form a value structure that is universally found across all human cultures (Schwartz 1994). In the United States, despite partisan polarization, Democrats and Republicans both rate Basic Human Values equally highly. Therefore, even though values might not seem so potent amidst heavy social cleavages and partisan biases, I argue that highlighting the shared basic human values will help reduce the intergroup animosity and draw greater tolerance regarding controversial issues and personalities.

Political Fatalism

Coauthored by Christopher Federico, Jane Sumner, Giulia Deluca, and Minyoung Kim

Political fatalism is the belief that political outcomes are preordained in some way and therefore inevitable. This paper uses a battery of quetsions modified from the health fatalism scale to measure political fatalism apart from the existing political efficacy.