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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Martin Elff
Event type:
Seminar
Org-unit: Politics, Administration & International Relations
Displayed in timetable as:
Political Beh. &
Hours per week:
3
Credits:
6,0
Location:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
5 | 35
Priority scheme: Standard-Priorisierung
Course content:
In the social sciences, the term public opinion refers to the distribution of attitudes and opinions towards political topics, in particular towards contentious issues - e.g. whether migration should be facilitated or reduced, whether the reliance of the energy industry on atomic energy and coal should be ended, whether one's own country should leave the EU or whether European Integration should be intensified etc. A democratically elected government cannot ignore the public opinion about such topics, without losing its legitimacy or without risking losing the next election. But how do citizens arrive at their opinions? Are they sufficiently informed to recognise important facts and relations about facts and to be guided by them? It is one of the best confirmed results of social science research on the formations of attitudes and opinions that few people satisfy the ideal of a "rational" citizen who dispassionately weighs values and facts. It is rather quite common that citizens either do not have any (stable) opinion on many political topics or do have opinions that are contrary to established facts and from which they cannot be dissuaded by corrective information. So what determines the formation of citizens' political opinions?
This course discusses relevant theoretical approaches, empirical findings, and methodological foundations of social science research on public opinion and applies them to these questions.
The following topics are covered in particular:
- The concept of public opinion
- The historic development of opinion research and its methodological
foundations
- The psychological base of opinion formation
- Social processes and opinion formation
- Political knowledge and public opinion
- Social networks, filter bubbles, and echo chambers
- Misinformation and motivated reasoning
- Current topics of public opinion research, e.g.
- Attitudes towards migration and xenophobia
- Scepticism towards science and towards climate change
Educational objective:
This seminar provides participants with an understanding of the fundamentals of social science research on public opinion and an insight into current research literature. They gain the ability to develop their own research questions and to address them in their own further studies, e.g. in an Ostrom thesis or a master thesis.
Mandatory literature:
- Glynn, Carol et al. 2018. Public Opinion. 3rd edition, New York and London: Routledge.
- Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origin of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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