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Culture,Socialization,andPolicy
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Tecoefcientsforanumberofcontrolvariablesarelarge,significant,andinthe
expecteddirection.Hispanicsandblacksaresignificantlylesslikelytosupportgaymar-
riage,whilethemoreconservativearespondentisthelesslikelyheorsheistosupport
gaymarriageaswell.Contrarytosomeconservatives,fearsthatincreasedexposure
toentertainmenttelevisionandmusicwillleadtoanerosionof“traditional”values,
therearenosignificantrelationshipswithamountoftimerespondentsspendwiththe
popularcultureandbeliefsaboutgaymarriage.
Interestingly,watchingtheCBSNewsvideopredictsgreatersupportforgaymar-
riage,whilethePennvidehasonlyasmall,positivebutstatisticallyinsignificant
relationshipwithsupportforgaymarriage.Tispuzzlingndingrequiresfurther
investigation.
Atotalof2,000recipientsreceivedarequesttoparticipateineachofthethreever-
sionsofthesurvey(novideo,CBS,Penn,sacceptancespeech).Overalltheresponse
ratewasquitepoor,with408respondentsoutof6,000requests,foraresponserate
of6.8%.Butgiventheexperimentaldesign,whatismostimportantarediferences
amongthethreegroups.
First,theresponseratewasmuchgreateramongthosenotaskedtowatchanyvideo.
Specifically,therateamongthoseinviteeswas10.35%,whilefortheCBSvideoitwas
5.4%andforthePennvideoitwasonly4.65%.Tesediferencesareimportantifthe
politicalcharacteristicsofthethreegroupsarediferent;inotherwords,ifthepotential
respondentswhorefusetoparticipatearepoliticallydiferentfromothers.Ofcourse
wecannotmeasurediferencesbetweenrespondentsandnon-respondents,butwecan
lookatdiferencesamongrespondentstothethreeversionsofthesurvey.
Onthesevenpointscalewhere1representsextremelyliberaland7represents
extremelyconservative,respondentstothesurveywithoutvideoaverage4.4,whileCBS
viewingrespondentsaverage3.8,andPennvideoviewersaverage3.6.Clearlyconserva-
tivesaremorelikelytoabstainfromboththeCBSvideo,andespeciallythePennvideo,
whichmakessensegivenJackson,s(2002)ndingthatwhite,maleconservativesarethe
mostlikelytodisapproveofthesociopoliticalcontentoftheentertainmentmedia.Put
anotherway,amongthosewhosawnovideo,45.4%areatleastsomewhatconserva-
tive,whileamongthosewhowatchedtheCBSvideoonly34.3%areatleastsomewhat
conservative,andatiny25.8%ofthosewhosawthePennvideoareconservative.
Intheirclassicstudyof“WhatMovesPublicOpinion,”Page,Shapiro,andDempsey
suggestveconditionsarenecessaryforamassmediatedmessagetochangepublic
opinion.
Teinformationinthemessagemustbe:
1)actuallyreceived;
2)understood;
3)clearlyrelevanttoevaluatingpolicies;
4)discrepantwithpastbeliefs;
5)credible.
ClearlytheCBSNewscoverageismorelikelytomeetthesecriteriaforconservatives
whomaybeopposedtogaymarriagethanisSeanPenn,sspeech.Tefirstwordsof
Penn,sspeechare,“Tankyou,thankyou,youcommie,homo-lovingsonsofguns…”