Treść książki

Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
Culture,Socialization,andPolicy
29
314).Importantly,McCrackenarguesthatthosewhoaremovingfromoneagecategory
toanotherwouldbeespeciallykeentotakeonmeaningscreatedbycelebrities.
ApplyingMcCracken,stheory,Jackson(2007)andJacksonandDarrow(2005)have
foundsubstantialefectsofcelebrityendorsementsofpoliticalideas.Utilizingasample
of456EnglishSpeakingCanadianuniversitystudents,JacksonandDarrowfoundthat
celebritiescanmakepopularideasmorepopularandunpopularideaslessunpopular.
Forexample,WayneGretzky,sendorsementofthehighlyunpopularbeliefthatPresi-
dentGeorgeW
.Bushwasagreatpresidentleadtoadecreaseinthelevelofstrong
disagreementwiththebelief.Jackson,s2007resultsweresimilar,utilizingasurveyof
U.S.universitystudents.Forexample,amongcountryandwesternmusicfans,thevery
popularpositionthattheU.S.governmentshoulddomoretohelpfarmerswaseven
morepopularwhenendorsedbyapopularcountryandwesternmusician.
Teresearchoncelebrityendorsementofproductstellsusmuchaboutwhattoexpect
fromcelebrityendorsementsinthepoliticalrealm.Ifcredibilityofthesourcewerethe
onlyimportantfactor,thenwemightnotexpectcelebrityendorsementsofpoliticalcan-
didatesorbeliefstohavemuchimpact.However,becauselikeabilityandattractiveness
matter,aswellastherebeingaproperlinkbetweenthecelebrityandthepoliticalideahe
orsheistryingto“sell,”thenweshouldcontinuetoexpectsignificantrelationships.
Dataandmethod
Weconductedapost-testonlyexperimentaldesignbasedonasurveyof408randomly
selectedstudentsatBowlingGreenStateUniversityinOhio.Studentswereinvitedto
participateinasurveythroughanemailinvitation.Teywererandomlyassignedto
threegroups.Membersofcontrolgroup1sawnovideo,andwereaskedonlytoanswer
abriefsetofquestions.Participantsassignedtocontrolgroup2wereinstructedtoclick
onavideoofCBSNewscoverageofthepassageofProposition8alongwithbackground
informationonthestatusofsamesexmarriage,andwhentheywerenishedwatching
thevideotoproceedtothesurvey.Finally,ourtreatmentgroupwasinstructedtowatch
SeanPenn,sacceptancespeechattheAcademyAwards,andthentoproceedtothesame
questionnaireasgroups1and2.Specificquestionwordingisavailableintheappendix.
Beforedescribingourhypotheses,afewwordsaboutoursampleareinorder.
Whiletheuseofonlyrespondentsenrolledinuniversityislessthanidealifthegoal
istogeneralizeabouttheentirepopulation,recentsocializationandpublicopinion
projectshavedoneso,especiallywhentestingnewtheories(Dolan1995,Huddyand
Terkildsen1993).Tegeneralizationswedrawareappropriatelyconstrainedbythe
limitsofoursample.
Apositiveargumentmaybemadeforexaminingtheattitudesofuniversitystudents
aswell.Politicalsciencescholarshipdemonstratesthatlikelihoodofvotingincreaseswith
theattainmentofhigherlevelsofeducation(WolfingerandRosenstone1980).Terefore,
inexaminingtheattitudesofyoungpeopleenrolledatuniversitywearelearningabout
thebeliefsofthosemostlikelytovote,andthereforetoinfluencethepoliticalprocess.
Moreover,scholarshavealsofoundthatelites,definedmainlyasthosewhoworkfull-time