IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0257335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the direct and indirect effects of elite influence on public opinion

Author

Listed:
  • Lauren Ratliff Santoro
  • Elias Assaf
  • Robert M Bond
  • Skyler J Cranmer
  • Eloise E Kaizar
  • David J Sivakoff

Abstract

Political elites both respond to public opinion and influence it. Elite policy messages can shape individual policy attitudes, but the extent to which they do is difficult to measure in a dynamic information environment. Furthermore, policy messages are not absorbed in isolation, but spread through the social networks in which individuals are embedded, and their effects must be evaluated in light of how they spread across social environments. Using a sample of 358 participants across thirty student organizations at a large Midwestern research university, we experimentally investigate how real social groups consume and share elite information when evaluating a relatively unfamiliar policy area. We find a significant, direct effect of elite policy messages on individuals’ policy attitudes. However, we find no evidence that policy attitudes are impacted indirectly by elite messages filtered through individuals’ social networks. Results illustrate the power of elite influence over public opinion.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren Ratliff Santoro & Elias Assaf & Robert M Bond & Skyler J Cranmer & Eloise E Kaizar & David J Sivakoff, 2021. "Exploring the direct and indirect effects of elite influence on public opinion," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0257335
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257335
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257335&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0257335?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chong, Dennis & Druckman, James N., 2010. "Dynamic Public Opinion: Communication Effects over Time," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(4), pages 663-680, November.
    2. Huckfeldt, Robert & Sprague, John, 1987. "Networks in Context: The Social Flow of Political Information," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(4), pages 1197-1216, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ejelöv, Emma & Nässén, Jonas & Matti, Simon & Elinder, Liselott Schäfer & Larsson, Jörgen, 2025. "Public and political acceptability of a food tax shift – An experiment with policy framing and revenue use," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yannis Karagiannis, 2014. "Communication effects, ethnicity, and support for secessionism in stateless nations: results from a survey experiment in Catalonia," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers p0386, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    2. Ann M. (Ann Martina) Carlos & Karen Maguire & Larry Neal, 2008. "“A knavish people ... so dextrous in bargaining that it is impossible for Christians to expect any advantage in their dealings with them” : London Jewry and the stockmarket during the South Sea Bubble," Working Papers 200806, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. Andrew R. Binder & Dietram A. Scheufele & Dominique Brossard & Albert C. Gunther, 2011. "Interpersonal Amplification of Risk? Citizen Discussions and Their Impact on Perceptions of Risks and Benefits of a Biological Research Facility," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(2), pages 324-334, February.
    4. Matthew O. Jackson & Benjamin Golub, 2007. "Naïve Learning in Social Networks: Convergence, Influence and Wisdom of Crowds," Working Papers 2007.64, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    5. Martin Baekgaard & Søren Serritzlew & Jens Blom-Hansen, 2016. "Causes of Fiscal Illusion: Lack of Information or Lack of Attention?," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 26-44, June.
    6. Rupert Sausgruber & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2008. "Tax Salience, Voting, and Deliberation," Working Papers 2009-25, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    7. Camila F. S. Campos & Shaun Hargreaves Heap & Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon, 2017. "The political influence of peer groups: experimental evidence in the classroom," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 963-985.
    8. Higuera, Lucas, 2009. "Reporte de Resultados de las Encuestas LAPOP 2008," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 2174, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Lauren Guggenheim & S. Mo Jang & Soo Young Bae & W. Russell Neuman, 2015. "The Dynamics of Issue Frame Competition in Traditional and Social Media," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 659(1), pages 207-224, May.
    10. Karel Kouba & Michael Haman, 2021. "When do voters boycott elections with participation quorums?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 279-300, October.
    11. Paweł Kamiński & Marta Kołczyńska & Bogdan W. Mach, 2022. "Support for democracy in ego‐centered social contexts," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1155-1167, September.
    12. Stuart Soroka & Lori Young & Meital Balmas, 2015. "Bad News or Mad News? Sentiment Scoring of Negativity, Fear, and Anger in News Content," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 659(1), pages 108-121, May.
    13. Hemesath, Sebastian & Tepe, Markus, 2023. "Framing the approval to test self-driving cars on public roads. The effect of safety and competitiveness on citizens' agreement," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Lynn Bennie & Patrick Bernhagen & Neil J. Mitchell, 2007. "The Logic of Transnational Action: The Good Corporation and the Global Compact," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55(4), pages 733-753, December.
    15. Daniel J. Galvin, 2020. "Let’s not conflate APD with political history, and other reflections on “Causal Inference and American Political Development”," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 485-500, December.
    16. Patrizia Ordine & Giuseppe Rose & Andrea Mosca, 2024. "The Effect of Priming Student Identity on IQ-Test Score: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 10(2), pages 733-759, July.
    17. Mechtel, Mario, 2014. "It's the occupation, stupid! Explaining candidates' success in low-information elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 53-70.
    18. Karamychev, Vladimir A. & Swank, Otto H., 2022. "A social image theory of information acquisition, opinion formation, and voting," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Florian Foos & Eline A. de Rooij, 2017. "All in the Family: Partisan Disagreement and Electoral Mobilization in Intimate Networks—A Spillover Experiment," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(2), pages 289-304, April.
    20. Low, Nicholas Kah Yean & Melatos, Andrew, 2022. "Vacillating about media bias: Changing one’s mind intermittently within a network of political allies and opponents," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 604(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0257335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.