International Norms and Mass Opinion: The Case of Human Rights in Britain.

This paper applies social-psychological theories of opinion formation to international norm dissemination by testing several hypotheses as they apply to the ECHR’s influence on British public opinion. The key finding is that while policy elites and policy professionals are more likely to be influenced if they are engaged in European affairs, the same logic shows that the public at large is insensitive to the Court’s influence. Methods include historical analysis, small-sample surveys and large-sample experimental designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]