Despite continued polarization along political party lines, it remains unclear how differences in political ideology impact the choices consumers make. The results of seven studies indicate that political ideology profoundly influences the way consumers think and behave. Liberals and conservatives are systematically drawn to distinct choice preferences where liberals prefer hedonic, novel, and desirable options, while conservatives prefer utilitarian, status quo, and feasible options. These findings are robust for multiple measures of political ideology across multiple choice sets. Differences in behavior are explained by the amount of deliberation used for a given decision. Liberals deliberate more than conservatives as they are more open to information while conservatives have a lower tolerance for ambiguous information. Implications for consumers, marketers, and policy makers are provided.

Abstract / Resumé The Ontario provincial government faces the challenge of getting public support in the implementation of its RE policy. This thesis aims at investigating the effects of environmental values and political ideology on public support for renewable energy policy in Ottawa, Canada. Data was collected through open-ended interviews with fifty respondents in and around Ottawa, transcribed, coded and analysed using the NVivo software. Results indicate that environmental values and political ideology affect public support for renewable energy policy, but economic factors also play a role. The provincial government can think of ways to reduce the cost of electricity, invest on education and the creation of awareness on the benefits of renewable energy and the different initiatives that are offered by the RE policy to increase public support. Public ownership of RE projects and more democratic policy-making could also increase public support. Le gouvernement provincial de l'Ontario fait face au défi d'obtenir le soutien public dans la mise en œuvre de sa politique d'ER. Cette thèse vise à étudier les effets des valeurs environnementales et de l'idéologie politique sur le soutien public à la politique sur l'énergie renouvelable à Ottawa, au Canada. Les données ont été recueillies par les entrevues ouvertes avec une cinquantaine de répondants à Ottawa et dans les environs. Ils ont été transcrits, codées et analysées à l'aide du logiciel NVivo. Les résultats indiquent que les valeurs environnementales et l'idéologie politique affectent le soutien public à la politique d'énergie renouvelable, mais les facteurs économiques jouent également un rôle. Le gouvernement provincial peut réfléchir à des moyens de réduire le coût de l'électricité, investir dans l'éducation et sensibiliser les gens aux avantages de l'ER et aux différentes initiatives offertes par la politique sur l'ER pour accroître le soutien public. La propriété publique de projets d'ER et l'élaboration de politiques plus démocratiques pourrait également accroître le soutien public.

Enligt tidigare studier värderar politiker jämlikhet och frihet olika beroende på sin politiska ideologi. Med detta som bakgrund var studiens huvudsyfte att studera eventuella skillnader mellan hur svenska politiker med olika ideologiska bakgrunder upplevde empati när en person utsattes för orättvisa samt när en person utsattes för ofrihet. En vinjettstudie genomfördes där deltagarna (n = 96) fick skatta de känslor som uppstod vid vardera situationen. Deltagarna delades upp i grupperna vänster- och högeranhängare utifrån subjektiva skattningar. Vänsteranhängare tenderade att känna mer empati än högeranhängare när en målperson utsattes för orättvisa. Ingen effekt av ideologisk tillhörighet i berättelsen om ofrihet visades. En tydlig könseffekt framgick där kvinnor både upplevde och gav upphov till mer empati än män. Att föreliggande studie inte fick något stöd angående ofrihet kan bero på flera olika anledningar, vilket tas upp i diskussionen. Vidare forskning behövs inom området empati relaterat till svensk politik där fler partier och anhängare studeras.

Previous research on investor preferences focused mainly on the relationship between socio-demographic variables and risk tolerance. This study extends the research in this area by focusing on three aspects of investor preferences: risk tolerance, time horizon, and estate intentions. The objective is to provide a more comprehensive model of investor preferences, including both psychological and attitudinal variables. This study addresses the following: Are socio-demographic variables sufficient to predict investor preferences? Is there a difference between males and females? How much additional variance is explained by including political ideology, positive psychology attitudes, and pro-social attitudes? Are these attitudinal variables simply additive or are they interactive? Data were collected from MBA students and senior undergraduate students in a major research university in South Florida. A scale was developed to measure estate intentions, a construct that has never been examined in management studies. The findings supported the expectation that psychological variables would be positively correlated with the dependent variables. However, I expected that pro-social attitudes would be a moderator variable, and this expectation was not realized. This dissertation contributes to the investor preferences field in several ways. First, it demonstrates the importance of psychological and attitudinal variables in explaining investor preferences. I also found differences between males and females regarding risk tolerance. This study can provide financial advisers with a deeper understanding of the importance of psychological and attitudinal variables in determining investor behavior. Finally, the results of this study augment and expand stakeholder theory. This study brings the investor into the stakeholder model, enhancing the descriptive, explanatory, and predictive capabilities of stakeholder theory. Future research could replicate this study using real investors in different locations for cultural variation, or using a panel of respondents for a longitudinal study.

Thesis advisor: David Hopkins / Over the past 20 years, there has been a trend in American politics for college graduates to identify with the Democratic party and to fall to the left on the ideology scale. College graduates of today are both more liberal than previous college graduates as well as their contemporary non-college graduate counterparts. Previous research disagrees on what mechanisms are driving this growing education gap in American politics. Some point to selection effects while others argue that college socializes students to move to the left. Using data from the Political Engagement Project (2003-2005), I argue that the process that is occurring is a mix of these two ideas, fitting an Input-Environment-Output model. While college students as a whole do come in leaning to the left, college has a mildly liberalizing effect on students, so that college graduates as a whole exit leaning more to the left than they did when they entered. I also point out some factors which predispose students to ideological change or stability during college. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

This research intends to discover the effects of packaging rigidity and political identity on consumer behavior. Four experiments are conducted and reported. The results show that although products in more flexible packages may be perceived as more innovative and environmentally friendly, they may nevertheless be less preferred because of reduced ease of handling. Moreover, I show that political identity moderates these results, such that politically liberal, more so than politically conservative, consumers are those who respond more negatively to flexible packaging. I investigate whether specific individual traits, openness to experience (one of the big five personality traits) and/or sensory sensitivity, help to explain the political identity moderator. Finally, I test whether the findings can be applied via marketplace targeting on the basis of political affiliation using voting data as a geographic proxy measure. / Business Administration/Marketing

Climate change is a source of anxiety and stress. To be resilient to the changes that are occurring, individuals must cope with that stress. Because there are many ways that people might manage stress we examined variation in coping strategy use among Americans who reported some concern about climate change to understand generally how people cope with such stress, and whether it can be predicted from individual difference factors, namely degree of climate change concern and political ideology. We examined these variables specifically because in the study of responses to climate change, conservatives and liberals often report divergent beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. To investigate these questions, we conducted two studies, recruiting American adults via MTurk (Study 1 N = 425, Study 2 N = 247). Participants completed online surveys with measures of how concerned they were about climate change, what they were stressed about in relation to climate change, how they cope with such stress, using the Brief COPE inventory (Carver, 1997), and political ideology. A variety of stressful experiences were reported, ranging from observations about changing weather to concerns about political inaction. We find that certain coping strategies (e.g., acceptance and active coping) are highly reported, whereas some strategies are less used (e.g., substance use). Overall, use of almost all coping strategies was found to be related to levels of concern about climate change – greater concern predicted greater use of most strategies. However, political ideology moderated the relationships between concern and use of certain coping strategies – conservatives who are more concerned were using more avoidant strategies to cope (i.e., disengagement), whereas the relationship was positive, but weaker for liberals. We did not observe such an interaction for problem-focused or social-focused coping strategies. The implications of these findings around coping responses to climate change in relation to the need for resilience are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the theorized identity styles and political positions, views, and opinions. Also investigated were the effects of authority on political views, specifically within the normative identity style. Students at a large southeastern metropolitan university (N = 440) took an anonymous online survey in exchange for course credit. Those with a normative identity style, who look to authority figures for answers, were found to have much higher levels of conservatism and held more conservative positions than did those with an informational style, who seek out their own sources for answers. Those with a diffuse-avoidant style, who avoid making identity related decisions, fell between the normative and informational styles on most of these measures. For those with a normative identity style, political views on welfare deservingness were better predicted by news media choice and parental political ideology than by personal political ideology. For those with an informational identity style, most political views were better predicted by personal political ideology than by news media choice, parental political ideology, or parental news media choice. A lack of usage of traditional media in favor of social media may explain some of the results. Further implications are discussed.

The American Dream has been the inspiration of many political speeches, political writings, and works of literature throughout American history. Most recently, it has inspired political groups like the Center for the New American Dream and academic groups like the Xavier University Center for the Study of the American Dream. As of late, the notion of the American Dream has begun to crop up more often than not in main stream political discourse, especially surrounding the topic of immigration with the aptly named Dream Act. Why has the American Dream drawn this new attention and inquiry? Why and how is it important to American Political thought? What does it mean? Why does it endure? As a complex issue of American culture, this thesis will use disparate methods of analysis to form answers to these questions. The American Dream is often referred to as our national myth. It is comprised of the many ideals and narratives which undergird American politics and culture. Through examination of literary works of fiction and of political texts, this research will examine the meaning and the history of the American Dream. Then, using secondary survey data, this research will examine the implications and state of the American Dream. Finally, to answer the question of why the American Dream endures, this research will employ elements of psychoanalytic and Marxist theory to argue that the Dream works as a cycle of American political thought.

The following dissertation contains two distinct empirical essays which contribute to the overall field of Financial Economics. Chapter 1 titles as “Corporate Lobbying, CEO Political Ideology and Firm Performance”. We investigate the influence of CEO political orientation on corporate lobbying efforts. Specifically, we study whether CEO political ideology, in terms of manager-level campaign donations, determines the choice and amount of firm lobbying involvement and the impact of lobbying on firm value. We find a generous engagement in lobbying efforts by firms with Republican leaning-managers, which lobby a larger number of bills and have higher lobbying expenditures. However, the cost of lobbying offsets the benefit for firms with Republican CEOs. We report higher agency costs of free cash flow, lower Tobin’s Q, and smaller increases in buy and hold abnormal returns following lobbying activities for firms with Republican managers, compared to Democratic and Apolitical rivals. Overall, our results suggest that the effects of lobbying on firm performance vary across firms with different managerial political orientations. Chapter 2 titled as “Corporate Lobbying and Labor Relations: Evidence from Employee” Litigations. We utilize employee litigations and other work-related complaints to examine if lobbying firms are favored in judicial process. We gather 27,794 employee lawsuits (after initial court hearing) between 2000 and 2014 and test the relationship between employee allegations and firms’ lobbying strategies. We find that employee litigations increase the number of labor-related bills in our sample. We document that the increase in employee lawsuits may drive firms into lobbying to change policy proposals. We also find robust evidence that the case outcome is different for lobbying firms compared to non-lobbying rivals, which may protect the shareholder wealth in the long run. Our results present that lobbying activities may make a significant difference in employee allegations. Our findings highlight the benefit of building political capital to obtain a biased outcome in favor of politically-connected firms.