Peffley, PS 473
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More Money Doesn't Mean More Sex, but More Sex Can Make You Feel Richer
By Sid Kirchheimer
WebMD Health News
July 16, 2004 -- Good
news for folks whose bedrooms have more activity than their bank
accounts: New research shows that sex is better for your happiness than money.
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Dartmouth College economist David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England report that sex
"enters so strongly (and) positively in happiness equations" that they estimate increasing intercourse from once a month to once
a week is equivalent to the amount of happiness generated by getting an additional $50,000 in income for the average American.
"The evidence we see is that money brings some amounts of happiness, but not as much as what economists might have
thought," says Blanchflower. "We had to look to psychologists and realize that other things really matter.“
Their paper, "Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study," recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research,
essentially puts an estimated dollar amount on the happiness level resulting from sex and its trappings.
Overall, the happiest folks are those getting the most sex -- married people, who report 30% more between-the-sheets action
than single folks. In fact, the economists calculate that a lasting marriage equates to happiness generated by getting an
extra $100,000 each year. Divorce, meanwhile, translates to a happiness depletion of $66,000 annually.
Whether that hefty happiness income boost is the result of marital bliss or more sex is up for debate. But their "econometric"
calculations confirm what psychologists have long known: People who consider
themselves happy are usually
richer in sexual activity.
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Does sex lead to happiness, or are happy people just more likely to lead each other to the bedroom? That's still under
investigation, but there is evidence that psyche and sex feed off each other.
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Take that study in the May 2001 issue of the Journal of Sex Research, in which Georgia State University researchers found that
people who are involuntarily celibate are frequently afflicted with nonhappy feelings -- anger, frustration, self-doubt, and
even depression. They conclude it's the result of "missed opportunities" of living without sex.
“Ideological innocence”
Internal sources of political attitudes
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http://typology.people-press.org/typology/
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Political elites & attentive masses use
ideologies to talk about politics & organize
their political attitudes. However:
 Mass public not consistently liberal & conservative
across different issue domains
 Don’t know the meaning of liberal and
conservative
 Often have difficulty determining the liberal and
conservative sides of political issues
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Group identifications
 Partisan identification
 Ideological identification
 Other group identifications (e.g., racial, ethnic,
religious, gender) structure attitudes toward political
objects (e.g., candidates, policies) associated with
ingroups & outgroups
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General beliefs
Values
Worldview
Personality
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Political attitudes organized within separate
policy domains versus ideologies that cut
across policy domains
Specific policy attitudes organized by
domain-specific heuristics, such as values,
general beliefs and attitudes toward groups
associated with the policy.
Economic Attitudes
Values
Individualism,
Foreign Policy Attitudes
Patriotism,
Egalitarianism,
Humanitarianism
General
Beliefs &
Postures
Policy
Attitudes
Morality of Warfare
Beliefs about
Welfare
Dovish or
Hawkish
Posture
Welfare
Opposition
or Support
Iraq War
Opposition
or Support
At the individual level: emotional, "easy" heuristics;
value priorities predict policy attitudes.
 At the societal level: value consensus identifies
political culture.
 Value structures or hierarchies, value conflict or
ambivalence (Rokeach).
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Individualism, work ethic and beliefs about
economic opportunity, values and beliefs that
some call the “American Dream,” the belief
that:
 Success is determined by hard work &
 Opportunities for success are available to
everyone
 i.e., what some call the Horatio Alger myth, the
rags to riches story in America
Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree
with the following statements?
 Any person who is willing to work hard has a good
chance of succeeding?
 Hard work offers little guarantee of success?
 Most people who don't get ahead should not blame the
system; they really have only themselves to blame?
 Even if people are ambitious, they often cannot succeed.
If people work hard, they almost always get what they
want?
 Even if people try hard, they often cannot reach their
goals?
Rokeach’s Value System, Value Hierarchy, 1 to 18
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A comfortable life (a prosperous life)
An exciting life (a stimulating, active life)
A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution)
A world at peace (free of war and conflict)
A world of beauty (beauty of nature and the arts)
Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for all)
Family security (taking care of loved ones)
Freedom (independence, free choice)
Happiness (contentedness)
Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict)
Mature love (sexual and spiritual intimacy)
National security (protection from attack)
Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life)
Salvation (saved, eternal life)
Self-respect (self-esteem)
Social recognition (respect, admiration)
True friendship (close companionship)
Wisdom (a mature understanding of life)
Hi Freedom
Capitalism
Socialism
Hi Equality
Low Equality
Fascism
Communism
Low Freedom
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THE PREJUDICED PERSONALITY
INTOLERANT PERSONALITY
UNDEMOCRATIC PERSONALITY
1.
Adorno et al., The Authoritarian Personality
(1950)
 Psychoanalytic interpretation
 Problems with the F-scale: yea-saying, right-wing
2.
Bob Altemeyer, Right-Wing Authoritarianism
 Correction for yea-saying (see scale)
 Three traits
▪ Authoritarian submission
▪ Authoritarian aggression
▪ Conventionalism
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Common law breakers are seen as a lower
form of life which do not deserve fairness and
protection under the law
MIRROR IMAGE TRIALS
WILLINGNESS TO JOIN A HYPOTHETICAL
POSSE
ACTS OF INTOLERANCE
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Version 1: Langley is leading a pro-gay demonstration to support a law
prohibiting discrimination against gays. He incites an attack against
counterdemonstrators. What should be his punishment?
Imagine that you are the judge presiding over the trial of Mr. William Langley. Mr.
Langley is a 44-year-old civil servant who is also the founder and president of the
Winnipeg chapter of Canadians for Gay Rights, a noted prohomosexual
organization. A few years ago Mr. Langley was leading a demonstration on the
steps of the Manitoba Legislature, supporting a proposed law which would
have prohibited discrimination against homosexuals in housing and certain
fields of employment. A crowd of approximately 100, mainly members of Mr.
Langley's organization, had gathered around his speaker's stand. A large banner
which read "GAY POWER" was tied between two columns immediately
behind…, a group of about 30 counterdemonstrators appeared and began to
walk slowly and silently around the outside of Mr. Langley's audience. They
carried signs which read "THE FAMILY IS SACRED" and "NO GAY RIGHTS."
…according to several witnesses, Mr. Langley said,…” I say we run them out of
here right now. Let's show everybody we mean business."
Version 2: Langley is leading an anti-gay demonstration to support allowing
discrimination against gays. Otherwise the rest of the narrative is the same.
 Local Manitoba samples, usually students
 No theory of when authoritarianism is activated
 His measure confounds authoritarianism with
social conservatism (conventionalism)
 Research on Manitoba students’ sexual behavior
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Social Conformity Versus Autonomy (Feldman, 2003)
Conformity Versus Autonomy
A. We should admire people who go their own way without worrying about what others think.
B. People need to learn to fit in and get along with others.
Freedom Versus Fear of Disorder
A. It is most important to give people all the freedom they need to express themselves.
B. Our society will break down if we allow people to do or say anything they want.
Respect for Common Norms and Values
A. Rules are there for people to follow, not to change.
B. Society's basic rules were created by people and so can always be changed by people.
Social Cohesion
A. Society should aim to protect citizens' right to live any way they choose.
B. It is important to enforce the community's standards of right and wrong.
Socialization and Child-Rearing Values
A. The most important values children should learn are obedience and respect for authority.
B. The most important values children should learn are independence and self-reliance.
Note: Respondents were asked whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the above
statements. Survey items were administered randomly.
Marc J. Hetherington
& Jonathan Weiler
Hetherington & Weiler, Ch 2
1.
Moderation. Today as in the past, most Americans are ideological moderates,
holding a mixture of liberal and conservative views on different issues.
2.
Partisan Polarization. Partisan polarization is largely an elite phenomenon—
i.e., elected officials and activists.
3.
Geographical Polarization. Cultural and political differences between red
states and blue states are actually fairly small. (The similarities between voters
in these two sets of states are much more striking than the differences.)
4.
Social Cleavages. Divisions within the public based on social characteristics
(age, race, gender, and religious affiliation) have been diminishing, not
increasing and are smaller than traditional economic divisions between the
parties.
5.
Political Turnoff. Growing polarization of party elites and activists turns off
large numbers of voters and depresses turnout in elections.
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A wide dispersion of preference between
groups moving toward a bimodal
distribution, or a clustering of preferences
near the poles.
In statistical terms, this rendering requires
 1) a large difference of means (or proportions)
between two groups and
 2) large and increasing standard deviations in
distributions of interest
Statistical definitions of popular polarization (bimodal distributions) are hard to find in the real
world, especially across average issues and
average people.
 Types of issues: Statistical definitions do not
take into account new issues, issue salience,
strong feelings, and an inability or unwillingness
to understand contrary points of view (e.g., gay
rights, terrorism and the Iraq war)
 Types of people: Party sorting looks like
polarization among engaged partisans, not just
the party elite (activists and politicians)
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Coburn’s claim: Analysts on CNN,
Fox News, etc. do the SAME
THING as political scientists who
study elections. By Coburn’s logic,
we can just go ahead and do away
with government funding of
medical research too, since CNN’s
got Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the case.
Coburn, an OB/GYN, claimed his
advice to a GOP Senate colleague,
John Ensign, who was having a
long-term affair with his top aide’s
wife (and paid off the husband
with campaign funds) was
protected by “physician-patient
privilege.”
Hetherington & Weiler, Ch 3
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AU is fundamentally motivated by a need for order &
support for authorities seen as best able to secure that
order against a variety of threats to social cohesion.
AU is associated with a belief in Biblical inerrancy
A tendency to rigid thinking and an unwillingness or
inability to process new information that might
challenge such thinking
AU forms the basis for a worldview, not a personality
trait
AU & conservatism aren’t the same thing
Situationism
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Several features are common to nonauthoritarians:
 a strongly held notion of fairness that manifests itself
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as outgroup preference;
a tendency toward accuracy motivation;
an aversion to prejudicial thinking,
valuing personal autonomy over social conformity
(Feldman)
an aversion to judgments, making them relativistic,
a tendency to be broadly opinionated
Values in Children vs Actual childrearing
practices.
“I am going to read you pairs of values.
Which value is more important for a child to
have?” (p. 48)
1. Independence?
or Respect for elders?
2. Curiosity?
or Good manners?
3. Being considerate or Being well-behaved?
4. Obedience
or Self-Reliance?
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Construct validity refers to whether a scale measures or correlates with the
theorized psychological construct (e.g., “authoritarianism") that it purports to measure.
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AU is correlated with:
 Need for cognition (low AU agree)
▪ “I would prefer complex to simple problems.”
▪ “I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a
lot of thinking.”
▪ “I have opinions on most things.”
 Intelligence (interviewer rating), education, political knowledge
 Need for order
▪ “Personally, I tend to think that there is a right way and a wrong way to
do almost everything”
▪ “Nothing gets accomplished in this world unless you stick to some basic
rules”
 Political & social tolerance toward unpopular groups
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Is there still a pejorative element to defining
these two groups? Could you define these
characteristics in different ways to alter the
relative appeal of the two groups?
Chapter 4
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Issue evolution (Carmines and Stimson) & its
key intervening steps: party sorting to win
elections, mass change in response to elite
changes
Worldview
Worldview evolution
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1) Racial & ethnic difference
2) Crime, law & order, and civil liberties
3) ERA/feminism/family structure
4) American militarism, diplomacy and the
aftermath of Vietnam.
What do these issues have in common, both
historically and currently?
Chapter 5
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Gay Rights
The War on Terror
Political,
Social Chars
AU
Gay Rights
1.
2.
3.
4.
As you may know, federal government agencies have recently been
given more power to use electronic surveillance to monitor phone
calls and emails within the United States without first getting a court
warrant to do so. Do you consider this an acceptable or unacceptable
way for the federal government to investigate terrorism?
Some people think installing video cameras in public places is a good
idea because they may help to reduce the threat of terrorism. Other
people think this is a bad idea because surveillance cameras may
infringe on people's privacy rights. What do you think? Would you say
this it is a good idea or a bad idea to install surveillance cameras in
public places?
These days, if someone disagrees with the president on issues relating
to terrorism, do you think it is okay to criticize him publicly, or should
people not criticize the president on issues relating to terrorism?
Do you think the news media should - or should not - report
information it obtains about the secret methods the government is
using to fight terrorism?
80
70
Percent
60
50
Offended at Happy
Holidays vs. Merry
Christmas
40
30
20
10
0
Everyone
High AU
Low Au
Chapter 6
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The impact of one independent variable (AU)
on the dependent variable (gay rights)
depends on the level of another independent
variable (perceived threat).
low
hi
A positive interaction between perceived threat & AU:
•Conventional wisdom in the Lab: The influence of AU should
increase when threat is increases because hi-AUs are more likely
to perceive the threat.
•In the real world, this is not likely, according to H&W.
A negative interaction
between overall perceived
threat (terrorism) & AU:
•When overall threat is so
high that non-AUs
perceive more threat, they
act more like
authoritarians, so knowing
whether someone is high
or low on the AU scale
doesn’t help predict their
behavior.
•When overall threat is
lower, hi AU’s & low-AUs
differ a lot (only hi AUs
perceive threat), so
knowing where a person is
on the AU scale is more
helpful in predicting their
behavior.
Perceived threat =
“The newer lifestyles
are contributing to the
breakdown of our
society".
In 2004, the interaction between AU & perceived threat was negative.
•For people who perceived high threat from alternative lifestyles (> .5), AU made no difference
•For those who perceived little threat (<.5) , AU had the greatest impact on Gay Adoption.
Perceived Threat =
"How worried are
you that you
personally might
become a victim of a
terrorist attack?"
•If people were very worried about a terrorist attack, they
supported curtailing civil liberties, regardless of AU.
•If they were not worried, AU had the biggest impact on
support for curtailing civil liberties.
Perceived Threat =
"How worried are
you that you
personally might
become a victim of a
terrorist attack?"
If people were very worried about a terrorist attack, they
approved of GWB regardless of AU.
If they were not worried, AU had the biggest impact on GWB
approval.
Perceived Threat =
"How worried are
you that you
personally might
become a victim of a
terrorist attack?"
If people were very worried about a terrorist attack, they
preferring strength vs diplomacy regardless of AU.
If they were not worried, AU had the biggest impact on Preferring
Strength vs Diplomacy.
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Increased threat often increases the number
of people supporting policies or candidates
that promise to impose more order.
Because people who score high in AU already
tend to support such initiatives, higher levels
of threat narrow the differences between
high & low AUs—i.e., makes AU less
predictive of political attitudes.
Chapter 7
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Steps of issue evolution, Chs 4 & 7
Extension to worldview evolution and the
widening of the cleavage formed along racial
issues
Reflected in voting behavior, partisanship &
party sorting, and an asymmetry among
non-authoritarians