By Michael Mandigo, Staff Writer
Susquehanna welcomed visiting professor, Ian G. Anson to give a guest lecture on March 28 titled “Partisan Economies: How Media Constrain and Encourage Motivated Reasoning about Economic Reality.’’
Ian G. Anson is a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
Anson talked about how the partisan divide between parties can grow or shrink depending on the media’s coverage of certain aspects about the economy.
Anson highlighted some of the misperceptions some Americans hold about politics and current affairs. These included vaccines, threat of climate change, health insurance rates, etc.
It is the role of the media to prevent motivated reasoning, according to Anson.
Susquehanna political science professor Kirk Harris explained that motivated reasoning is when people interpret information considering their prior beliefs or biases about a subject. People will actively seek out information that confirms their biases and find reasons to doubt or reject information that would cause them to doubt their prior beliefs.
“The more media coverage about a particular economic indicator, the less impact motivated reasoning has on people’s’ assessment of the indicator,” Harris said about Anson’s assessment of the media.
“So, because the stock market gets covered on a daily basis and features prominently in news about the economy, Republicans and Democrats tend to view the performance of the stock market more objectively than something like average wages, which are reported on much less frequently, largely because this data is harder to collect,” Harris continued.
“Many citizens do not understand the ideological foundations or practical consequences of policy. However, the citizen can still punish the incumbent based on things like retrospective performance cues,” Anson said.
A retrospective performance cue is universal indicators of how elected officials are doing, things like foreign affairs and immigration.
Anson stressed the performance cue relating to the economy, because, according to him, many people base their vote on the state of the economy.
Weak economics often doom the incumbent because even the most politically ignorant voter can extract political bias based on
the state of the economy.
Anson used the example of the stock market to show that the less people know about a certain topic the better chance there will be a partisan divide.
“Take one piece of information, broadcast it, and fashion it into a news story.” Anson said regarding the media’s role in solving motivated reasoning.
During his lecture, Anson also discussed various views of modern democracy.
Anson explained the concept of what is called classical democratic theory, where citizens monitor the decisions of elected officials. While this is going on, these elected officials seek the input of the public.
Citizens reward or punish the elected official based of their performance in office. They do this by voting for them in re-election or voting them out of office.
Anson also discussed the idea of the enlightened citizen. These individuals have a deep knowledge of political institutions and political actors.
Susquehanna Assistant Professor of Political Science Rolfe D. Peterson commented on this idea of the enlightened citizen, “In a democracy, it is important to know what the worlds like.”
“If you’re going to vote, you got to know the state of what is going on,” he continued.
Enlightened citizens have a clear awareness of current affairs and issues.
These are the people who show high levels of ideological concern and knowledge.
The way these individuals respond to problems is with civic engagement through debate, protest or discussion.