Explaining Mass Attitudes towards Foreign State Influence: A Conjoint Analysis

• In Event: Propaganda, Disinformation, and War

Abstract

How do members of the public respond to foreign state influence attempts? There has been extensive attention to soft and sharp power efforts in recent years, with increasing public and political backlash to those efforts, but little understanding of what kinds of influence attempts are viewed as acceptable which are most likely to lead to opposition. This study uses conjoint experiments across two countries to simultaneously test threat-based, material, and partisan explanations for public responses to different kinds of foreign state influence attempts. The hypotheses draw on pilot studies and literatures on immigration, electoral interference, and foreign occupation and argue that nationalist reactions to perceived foreign threats play a minimal role. Instead, the public primarily respond to material factors when evaluating foreign influence attempts, but can be significantly swayed by partisan opposition. The study has important implications for our understanding of mass preferences towards the increasingly salient issue of foreign influence attempts.

Author

• Jamie Gruffydd-Jones, University of Kent