Political Science #344
Illinois Wesleyan University
Greg Shaw phone: 556-3658 – fax: 556-3719 – e-mail: gshaw@iwu.edu
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Course description and requirements:
This course introduces a variety of topics in the field of political psychology. This course draws on the insights of political scientists, social and cognitive psychologists, and behavioral economists. Topics include: the roles of emotion and reason in opinion formation, the use and misuse of heuristics, persuasion, framing effects in survey questions and political rhetoric, altruism, judgments under uncertainty and risk, jury behavior, and the formation of judgments regarding fairness and justice.
Students’ grades are based on two exams, two short papers, and class participation. Each exam is worth 25% of the course grade. The short papers are each worth 15% of the course grade. Participation in class discussions and activities comprises the remaining 20% (10% for participation in the class project described below; 10% for participation generally in class discussions). About one week before each exam I will distribute a list of questions resembling, but not identical to, the questions you will face on the up-coming exam. These questions should be taken as a rough indicator of the level of difficulty and style of the questions that will appear on the exams. Taking an exam at any time other than in class on the designated exam date requires advance approval from me. You will need to keep up on the assigned reading in order to do well in this course.
The class will conduct a telephone survey of local residents. This project will require a significant time commitment from everyone in the class. You will work with your peers to formulate questions and will spend a few evenings in the lab to conduct the interviews. To facilitate hypothesis formation and question development, the class will divide into small teams, each of which will meet on its own as well as with me outside of class time. Once these teams have developed their hypotheses, they will share them with the larger class for critique. Groups will discuss the survey’s results in class following its fielding. Your peers and I will evaluate your contributions to this project, and that evaluation will be worth 10% of your overall course grade.
Twice during the semester you will turn in a paper reflecting on a selection of readings you believe speak to an important theme that you identify. These papers should synthesize theoretical perspectives and empirical findings from various readings on the syllabus. You should use this opportunity to critique some of the literature we’ve read and to come to your own conclusions. I’m asking you to reflect on the readings rather than to search out materials beyond those listed on the syllabus. These papers should each run 6 to 7 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, standard 1” margins). I will say more about this assignment as the semester goes along. If you are the least bit uncertain about your writing skills, visit the IWU writing center for help. Please also feel free to visit with me during office hours to discuss ideas. I am certainly willing to talk through your ideas. Due to time constraints, I cannot promise to read and comment on rough drafts.
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Final course grades will be assigned on the following basis: 90-100% = A/A-; 80-89% = B+/B/B-; 70-
79% = C+/C/C-; 60-69% = D; below 60% = F. Taking a grade of incomplete in this course is very strongly discouraged. Under no circumstances will a student be granted a grade of incomplete without discussing the matter with me well in advance of the end of the semester. All other university policies apply.
The following course texts are available at the university bookstore:
Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches , Richard Petty and John Cacioppo,
Westview Press, 1996
The Illusion of Public Opinion: Fact and Artifact in American Public Opinion Polls , George Bishop,
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005
Going Negative: How Attack Ads Shrink and Polarize the Electorate , Stephen Ansolabehere and
Shanto Iyengar, The Free Press, 1995
Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology , Paul Sniderman, Richard Brody, and
Phil Tetlock, Cambridge University Press, 1991
The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior , edited by Neuman,
Marcus, Crigler, and MacKuen, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2007
Excerpts from the following sources are on electronic reserve (password: persuasion). These items are underlined below:
James Barber, The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House, 4 th ed ., Prentice Hall, 1992
Michael Nelson, “The Psychological Presidency,” in Nelson (ed.)
The Presidency and the Political System, 8 th ed .,
Congressional Quarterly Press, 2006
Prior and Lupia, “Money, Time, and Political Knowledge” American Journal of Political Science , vol. 52 #1, January 2008.
(J-STOR or paper copy on shelves)
Richard Thaler, Quasi-Rational Economics , Russell Sage Foundation, 1991
Jack Levy, “Applications of Prospect Theory in Political Science,” Synthese 135, 2003
Phil Tetlock, Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?, Princeton University Press, 2005
Tourangeau, Rips, and Rasinski, The Psychology of Survey Response , Cambridge University Press, 2000
“Knowledge, Trust, and International Reasoning,” Popkin and Dimock, in Elements of Reason , Cambridge University
Press, 2000
Beyond Self-Interest , edited by Jane Mansbridge, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990
James Druckman, “Political Preference Formation: Competition, Deliberation, and the (Ir)relevance of Framing Effects,”
American Political Science Review , vol. 98 #4 (November 2004)
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Robert Cross and Susan Brodt, “How Assumptions of Consensus Undermine Decision Making,” MIT Sloan Management
Review , winter 2001
Robert Cialdini , Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, revised edition , Quill, 1992
George Lakoff,
Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate
, 2004
Robert Altemeyer, “The Other Authoritarian Personality,” in Political Psychology (Jost and Sidanius, editors)
Inside the Juror: The Psychology of Juror Decision Making , edited by Hastie, Cambridge University Press, 1993
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Topics & Weeks Readings
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Defining the field of political psychology Petty & Cacioppo, chapts. 1&2
Explorations in Pol-Psych , chapt. 1
(by Shanto Iyengar)
Is it political science, or psychology, or both?
What do we know about how people think?
What don’t we know?
Citizen competence with information
A summary of important insights
Some anomalies in reasoning
Affect versus reasoning
Problems with opinion measurement
The Affect Effect , chapts. 3 & 10
Illusion of Public Opinion
Cross and Brodt essay
, chapts. 1, 2 & 4
(handout)
Political knowledge
What do citizens know?
Low-information rationality
A brief introduction to heuristics
Political learning: affect and cognition
‘Memory-based’ versus ‘on-line processing’
Popkin & Dimock essay
Tetlock, Expert Political Judgment
The Affect Effect
Prior and Lupia,
Going Negative
, chapts. 5 & 6
AJPS
, ch. 2
51, #1 [J-STOR]
, chapts. 3-5, 7
Petty & Cacioppo, chapt. 3 (optional)
Explorations in Pol-Psych , chapt. 8
(Lodge & Stroh; skim pts. 2 & 3)
Issue framing and survey question wording effects
Framing effects
Other question wording effects
Illusion of Public Opinion , chapts. 3, 5
(skim chapt. 5) & 6
Druckman article ( APSR Nov. 2004; access via J-STOR)
Gilens, “An Anatomy of Survey Based
Experiments” in
Navigating Public
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Persuasion
Elaboration likelihood model
Tolerance of ambiguity & openness to counter-arguments
Opinion
Lakoff, ch. 1
Petty & Cacioppo, chapts. 5, 6, 8, 9
Cialdini, chapt. 1
Tuesday: I’ll distribute guidelines for developing survey questions and the peer evaluation
Thursday: brainstorming ideas for survey; form small groups to develop questions; Greg leaves class early this day – the small groups should use the rest of this session to begin developing concepts to explore in the survey
1 st
reflection paper due in class on Thursday
Designing surveys and survey-based experiments
Thursday : mid-term exam (covering all material to date)
Illusion of Public Opinion , chapt. 9
Decisions under Uncertainty
Some common heuristics
Mental accounting
Stability of preferences
Prospect theory
Trade-off reasoning
The Affect Effect , chapt. 7
Quasi Rational Economics, chapts. 2 & 3
Jack Levy article
Small groups will meet with Greg outside class to refine questions early in this week
Work on survey
Small groups will present their projects to the
Tourangeau et al., chapters 2 & 5 larger group; each will present and justify its hypotheses and proposed tests
Our script must be finalized by Friday of this week
Work on survey no assigned reading this week

Field the survey Monday thru Thursday evenings
(with some afternoon work too)
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Tuesday: meet to discuss project
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Thursday: no class meeting
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Data will be e-mailed to class by about the middle of spring break week
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Rationality and altruism Beyond Self-Interest , chapt.6
Disentangling altruism and instrumentalism
The prisoner’s dilemma and other collective action problems
(Dawes et al.)
Make time one evening this week to view “Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment” (as a group)
Analyzing the results of the survey no assigned reading this week

Tuesday: Small groups present findings from their projects (PowerPoint please)
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Thursday: no class
Authoritarianism, tolerance and conformity
2 nd reflection paper due in class on Thursday
Jury & juror behavior
Stenner, Authoritarian Dynamic , selections selected pages from chapts. 1-4
Altemeyer, “The Other Authoritarian
Personality”
The Affect Effect , chapts. 8 & 9
Myer’s summary of Milgram experiments
(handout)
Inside the Juror , chapters 2, 3, 8, 13
How useful is psychobiography?
Final exam: cumulative w/ emphasis on 2 nd
half of course
Barber, Presidential Character
Michael Nelson chapter (from
System )
The Affect Effect
, chapter 1
The
, chapts. 14 & 15
Presidency and the Political
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