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While a great deal of research has focused on understanding the foundations of public support for American courts, scant attention has been paid to the role of the media for such attitudes. Given the media’s demonstrated ability to influence public opinion, this remains a substantial gap in the literature. In the present paper we examine how different types of media—sensationalist (i.e., political radio and cable news) or sober (i.e., newspapers and network news) —influence individuals’ attitudes toward both the U.S. Supreme Court and courts at the state level. In line with our predictions, we find that sensationalist media exposure depresses both diffuse and specific support for American courts. Additionally, our results call into question the unconditional nature of the ubiquitous sophistication-approval relationship. We find that sophistication’s positive effect on court attitudes is conditional on an individual’s particular source of political information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how the personality characteristics of individuals affect the answers they give to questions on controversial political topics. In April and May 2000, a random-digit-dial survey of 518 Americans was conducted in the continental United States. This survey included question batteries measuring two psychological concepts related to self-presentation. Respondents were also asked about their opinion on a number of sensitive topics, such as feelings toward blacks and homosexuals and their opinions about spending on popular programs, including schools and the environment. Their responses to these questions varied as a function of their self-presentation personality characteristics. The results presented here suggest that self-presentation measures such as those assessed here can improve our understanding of how the social dynamics of the survey interview affect responses to sensitive questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Much previous work in the field of survey research has puzzled over modest bivariate correlations between different environmental measures, suggesting that public attitudes on the environment art rather crude, disconnected, and narrowly focused. Using 1991 Gallup data, the purpose of this research is to present a methodological critique and reevaluation of the literature on the dimensionality of environmental concern. Methods. Given the frequent, yet problematic, use of environmental batteries that ask respondents to express opinions using a common response format, this paper uses confirmatory factor analysis to correct for both random and nonrandom sources of measurement error. Results. Data results suggest that not only can the standard environmental battery used by Gallup be reduced to relatively few latent factors, those factors are themselves strongly correlated across a diverse set of environmental issues, as well as among several broad idea elements thought to define environmental concern. Conclusions. While current results offer compelling evidence of the near unidimensionality of environmental attitudes, and of the willingness of many Americans to express concern for environmental quality, ultimately dimensionality alone may be insufficient proof that public attitudes on the environment have matured into, a sophisticated and constrained social paradigm or belief system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]