Sean Richey

Effective Messages in Vaccine Promotion: A Randomized Trial

OBJECTIVES: To test the effectiveness of messages designed to reduce vaccine misperceptions and increase vaccination rates for measles-mumps-rubella (MMR). METHODS: A Web-based nationally representative 2-wave survey experiment was conducted with 1759 parents age 18 years and older residing in the United States who have children in their household age 17 years or younger (conducted June–July 2011). Parents were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 4 interventions: (1) information explaining the lack of evidence that MMR causes autism from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; (2) textual information about the dangers of the diseases prevented by MMR from the Vaccine Information Statement; (3) images of children who have diseases prevented by the MMR vaccine; (4) a dramatic narrative about an infant who almost died of measles from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet; or to a control group. RESULTS: None of the interventions increased parental intent to vaccinate a future child. Refuting claims of an MMR/autism link successfully reduced misperceptions that vaccines cause autism but nonetheless decreased intent to vaccinate among parents who had the least favorable vaccine attitudes. In addition, images of sick children increased expressed belief in a vaccine/autism link and a dramatic narrative about an infant in danger increased self-reported belief in serious vaccine side effects. CONCLUSIONS: Current public health communications about vaccines may not be effective. For some parents, they may actually increase misperceptions or reduce vaccination intention. Attempts to increase concerns about communicable diseases or correct false claims about vaccines may be especially likely to be counterproductive. More study of pro-vaccine messaging is needed.

Using Google Search Data for State Politics Research An Empirical Validity Test Using Roll-Off Data

Google Insights for Search provides a new and rich data source for political scientists, which may be particularly useful for state politics scholars. We outline the prior uses of Google Insights for Search in social and health sciences, explain the data-generating process, and test for the first time the validity of this data for state politics research. Our empirical test of validity shows that Google searches for ballot measures’ names and topics in state one week before the 2008 Presidential election correlate with actual participation on those ballot measures. This demonstrates that the more Internet searches there were for a ballot measure, the less likely voters were to roll-off (not answering the question), and establishes the construct validity for this data for one important topic in state politics research. We also outline the limitations to this data source.

The Impact of Corruption on Social Trust

I test the impact of governmental corruption on generalized social trust. Based on prior research in comparative politics and criminology, I hypothesize that increasing governmental corruption leads to decreasing beliefs that others are trustworthy. To test my hypothesis, I combine aggregate state-level data on convictions for governmental corruption with American National Election Studies panel survey data with waves in 2000, 2002, and 2004. My findings show a clear impact of greater corruption on levels of generalized trust. I find that living in states with increased corruption lowers generalized trust, while controlling for other known determinants. This research expands our knowledge of how institutional actions influence generalized trust.

The Autoregressive Influence of Social Network Political Knowledge on Voting Behaviour

Social networking has a powerful influence on voters, but we do not know enough about the mechanisms of network influence. Recent research shows that one network members influence is highly dependent on the others in the network, i.e. autoregressive. I test whether the influence of social network political knowledge is also autoregressive. I show that a strong predictor of vote choice similarity is the level of knowledge of the discussant, but greater knowledge of the other network members lessens dyadic agreement. Data from the American National Election Study collected in 2000 show that in the presidential election of 2000 having a knowledgeable discussant increases the chance of vote similarity with that discussant by 5 percentage points, but vote similarity decreases by 10 percentage points for each level of residual network knowledge. This research confirms the autoregressive influence of social network political knowledge.

Ballot Question Readability and Roll-Off: The Impact of Language Complexity

Ballot questions often feature obscure and legalistic language that is difficult to comprehend. Because the language of ballot questions is often unclear, the authors hypothesize that questions with lower readability will have higher roll-off because voters will not answer questions they do not understand. The authors use an objective measure of readability to code readability scores for 1,211 state-level ballot questions from 1997 to 2007. Using hierarchical linear regression models of state-level data, the authors find that increased complexity leads to more roll-off. The authors further analyze some possible influences on readability by examining whether it is affected by the question topic.

The Social Basis of Voting Correctly

A large literature has established that people learn from political discussion, and some scholars suggest that people will make better choices if they engage in political discussion with opinion leaders. To establish that discussion promotes better vote choices, however, we have to create a measure of rational choice to test the impact of discussion. Recently, scholars have used Lau and Redlawsks voting correctly measure to test the impact of various influences on the rationality of vote choice. Using this new measure of rationality—voting correctly—I determine whether political discussion has the predicted positive impact. To test this theory, I use 2000 American National Election Study survey data, and show that greater political discussion with knowledgeable discussants leads to more correct voting.

The Role of Social Networks in Influenza Vaccine Attitudes and Intentions Among College Students in the Southeastern United States

PURPOSE To investigate whether support for vaccines among ones health discussants is associated with beliefs in vaccine safety and intention to vaccinate among college students. METHODS Ordered logistic regression analysis was conducted of data collected from 1,019 undergraduates at a large public university in 2009 and 2010. RESULTS Having health discussion networks that support vaccination is a significant predictor of beliefs of H1N1 vaccine safety (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.32) and intention (aOR = 1.78) in 2009 and of influenza vaccine safety (aOR = 1.85) and intention (aOR = 1.74) in 2010. These relationships are strongest among parents, friends, and spouses. CONCLUSIONS Perceptions of flu vaccine attitudes among health discussants were strongly related to vaccination intent and beliefs about flu vaccine safety among survey respondents.

Internet Access Does Not Improve Political Interest, Efficacy, and Knowledge for Late Adopters

We predict that the Internet will have little effect on political interest, efficacy, and knowledge. We use American National Election Survey monthly panel survey data from 2008 to 2010 to test the role of the Internet. We exploit the fact that the firm who conducted the survey—Knowledge Networks—gives out Internet access for free to those who have never had the Internet before in staggered waves, allowing us to create a novel control-waitlist research design. This allows us to analyze the quasi-random assignment of the Internet to new users for a period of nine months compared to a group that has not yet been given free Internet access. We find that nine months of Internet usage does not increase political interest, political efficacy, or political knowledge. An additional wave done after two and a half years of access also shows little change. Our findings thereby raise serious doubts about the previous observational findings of the benefits of Internet usage for political interest, efficacy, and knowledge.

Hierarchy in Political Discussion

Some scholars posit that the influence of opinion leaders within a social network can provide an efficient division of labor of knowledge acquisition. Opinion leaders, however, are only one type of influential discussion partner in a social network. Although untested in the current literature, if political discussion amounts to pressure from social superiors to vote or think a certain way, discussion may not increase political comprehension. I tested this effect in Japan, a country that has a high level of social hierarchy. Using data from a new nationally representative survey during the 2005 Japanese Diet elections, I test the determinants of the social transfer of political expertise. I found that political discussion from superiors does increase vote similarity, but does not increase political knowledge. I also found that hierarchical pressure is focused disproportionately on women and youth. However I show as well that discussion with opinion leaders increases political knowledge.

Campaign Advertising and the Stimulation and Activation of the Authoritarian Personality

This research examines whether authoritarianism can be stimulated and activated by politicians. The traditional belief is that psychological traits are basically quasipermanent structures that consistently determine behavior, but newer research suggests that these traits can be stimulated. This research tests whether campaigns can stimulate traits with targeted messages. I do so by exposing subjects in an experiment to political television advertising that was designed to stimulate known correlates of authoritarianism, such as fear. The results show that authoritarianism is stimulated in treatment groups that watched advertising designed to invoke threat and the strong-father metaphor and the treatment effect is greater on conservatives. I also show that watching these commercials leads to an activation of authoritarianism that influences its predictive power over support for torture. This suggests that politicians can use emotional appeals to stimulate advantageous personality traits, and that these ads also influence the publics attitudes through activation.