Rolfe Daus Peterson

To tweet or not to tweet: Exploring the determinants of early adoption of Twitter by House members in the 111th Congress☆

Abstract The adoption of communication forms like Twitter presents students of congressional behavior an interesting case to examine the intersection of technology and politics. Twitter represents a social media venue that provides an immediate and direct link between the Member of Congress (MC) and constituents, which entails a benefit and a potential risk. In this paper, I examine Twitter use in the 111th Congress in order to better understand congressional early adoption of new technology. The primary question addressed is what systematic determinants shape the decision to adopt Twitter as a component of an MCs media strategy. Using data collected from MC Twitter accounts and the 2008 congressional election, I find partisan, cohort, and ideological determinants on early Twitter adoption. Republicans are more likely to use Twitter even in multivariate analysis; ideological extremism influences the use of Twitter. In contrast to past technologies, district demographics have no systematic effect on the early adoption of Twitter.

Halo Effects and the Attractiveness Premium in Perceptions of Political Expertise

Physical appearance, both our own and that of others, is a common influence on social interactions. In this article, we consider whether appearance also plays a role in how we come to understand politics. As a test, we use American National Election Study survey data, which includes the interviewer’s subjective ratings of respondents’ appearance and perceived political knowledge. We bolster the ANES results with a pair of survey experiments where subjects evaluated randomly assigned potential political discussion partners. Our results show that more attractive individuals are viewed as more knowledgeable and more persuasive, and are more likely to be sought out by others for political information. In addition, more attractive individuals (even the relatively uninformed) are more likely to report attempting to persuade others. These findings have implications for our understanding of how citizens identify political experts, the potential for the spread of misinformation, and the political judgments citizens make.

Principled or Opportunist? Perceptions of Arlen Specter and His Party Switch During the 2010 Midterm Election:

While the literature on party switching identifies the reasons that politicians switch parties and the negative electoral consequences of doing so, it does not adequately explore why these consequences exist. To accomplish this task the authors look at citizen responses to party switching. The authors explore perceptions of Arlen Specter and his change in party affiliation during the 2010 midterm election by using original survey data gathered from residents of Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District. The authors posit that the information environment created by the parties, candidates, interest groups, and the media during the election frames the switch as both principled and opportunistic. The authors find that partisanship plays a large role in the frame that is accepted by citizens and that those frames subsequently influence their views of the candidate’s favorability.

Effects of physical attractiveness on political beliefs

Abstract. Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the “halo effect” are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.

Glass Ceiling or Glass Elevator: Are Voters Biased in Favor of Women Candidates in California Elections?

Conventional wisdom suggests voters are biased against women candidates for public office. Reluctance to support female candidates is thought to depress the number of votes women receive, causing them to lose more elections than males. Despite reasons to expect bias against female candidates, it is rarely found in empirical analysis. This paper examines circumstances in which voters may be biased in favor of women candidates. Voters in low-information elections may rely on gender to determine their vote. We hypothesize that the dearth of information may cause certain voters to collapse their votes onto women candidates. Thus, women candidates will do better than males in low-information elections. A test of this hypothesis, examining election returns for the California State Legislature from 2000 to 2006, finds some support for a positive bias.