Tag Archives: republicans

Mitt Romney’s Face Looks Different to Republicans and Democrats

Political opinions can influence how people perceive a candidate’s facial characteristics  

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study suggests that political bias can influence how people perceive the facial characteristics of a presidential candidate – even after seeing his face on TV thousands of times.

The study of Ohioans immediately before and after the 2012 presidential election showed that people’s mental representation of Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s face differed based on their political persuasion. (more…)

Read More

Plan C: ‘All Roads Lead Back to Boehner’ – UMD’s Kettl

University of Maryland School of Public Policy Dean Don Kettl on where the fiscal cliff negotiations head after Plan B fails:

“For the Republicans, this is a very weak situation. They’re struggling to get their mojo back after the election. It’s very clear they don’t know which way to go and they aren’t willing to follow anyone to get them there.

For the Democrats, there will be a powerful temptation to allow the Republicans to swing in the wind. It’s hard to beat something with nothing, and right now the Republicans have nothing to bring to the table. The Democrats will surely enjoy watching this for a few days, and watching the approval ratings of the House Republicans drop a few more notches. (more…)

Read More

Rose McDermott: The Political Genome

A recent review of research co-authored by Rose McDermott highlights the role that genes play in political preferences, an area of study that began to draw significant attention in the last decade. McDermott speaks with Courtney Coelho about this growing field of research, its evolutionary roots, and whether it means anything for the prediction of future election results.

The connection between biology and political science is relatively new, but it’s one that has grown rapidly, with a boom in research linking genetics and political preferences in the last decade. Rose McDermott, professor of political science, has done research on this topic and recently co-authored a review, published in Trends in Genetics, of studies in recent years. (more…)

Read More

Political Leaders Play Key Role in How Worried Americans Are By Climate Change

COLUMBUS, Ohio – More than extreme weather events and the work of scientists, it is national political leaders who influence how much Americans worry about the threat of climate change, new research finds.

In a study of public opinion from 2002 to 2010, researchers found that public belief that climate change was a threat peaked in 2006-2007 when Democrats and Republicans in Congress showed the most agreement on the issue. (more…)

Read More

J. Timmons Roberts: What did Durban do for climate?

J. Timmons Roberts, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, led a group of Brown researchers and students to the United Nations climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa. On his return, Roberts spoke with Richard Lewis, reflecting on the Durban meetings, the status of research, and the challenges of activism on issues of climate change.

Timmons Roberts, professor and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, has just returned from attending climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Roberts and a delegation from Brown — faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students — witnessed the negotiations up close as observers to ministerial speeches and negotiations. The talks ended with an agreement to extend the greenhouse gas emissions targets set under the Kyoto Protocol and a pledge to work on a replacement treaty incorporating the United States, China, and India.

Roberts spoke with Richard Lewis on the importance of the talks, the need for industrialized countries to compensate developing countries for damages from climate change, and the unique opportunity for people from Brown’s environmental program to attend the talks. (more…)

Read More

Who Wants to Deliberate with Politicians? More than Some Expected, Study Finds

Conventional wisdom suggests that average citizens hate politics, loathe hyper-partisan gridlock, balk at voting even in presidential election years and are, incidentally, woefully ill-informed.

Given that, the thinking goes, it’s reasonable to conclude that citizens want less, not more, involvement in politics.

But that widely accepted theory does not survive empirical scrutiny, a team of researchers that includes a University of Colorado Boulder political scientist found. (more…)

Read More

Did Obama’s Election Kill the Antiwar Movement?

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Since 2003, the antiwar movement in the United States has had much to protest with Americans fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, but the movement—which has dropped off sharply the past two years—may be more anti-Republican than antiwar, says a University of Michigan researcher.

A new study by U-M’s Michael Heaney and colleague Fabio Rojas of Indiana University shows that the antiwar movement in the United States demobilized as Democrats, who had been motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments, withdrew from antiwar protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success, first with Congress in 2006 and then with the presidency in 2008. (more…)

Read More