Reinforcing Spirals and the Issue of Stable Attitudes and Behavior

• In Event: Reinforcing Spirals in Political Communication: Methodological Boundaries, Challenges and Solutions

Abstract

The reinforcing spirals model (RSM) has quickly become a popular way of thinking about the reciprocal dynamics of media use and effects, not only in political communication. One key assumption of the model is that both exposure to media content and individual attitudes vary over time - if there were no variation, there would be no covariation. However, the relative stability of media use and political attitudes are rarely the focus of empirical studies employing the reinforcing spirals model. In our presentation, we will first discuss the theoretical assumptions of the spirals model regarding intra-individual variation and inter-individual differences in media use and political attitudes. In a second step, we will present meta-analytic results on the temporal stability of different phenomena of interest in political communication, such as media use, partisan selective exposure, campaign involvement, candidate evaluations or party preferences, drawing on established panel data from American National Election Study and the German Longitudinal Election Study. Considering the findings of our meta-analysis - that after accounting for imperfect measurement, media use and most political orientations and attitudes are rather stable over the course of a campaign - we conclude with theoretical as well as methodological suggestions on whether and how to refine and empirically test the RSM in light of stable attitudes and behaviors.

Authors

• Michael Scharkow, Zeppelin U

• Marko Bachl, U of Hohenheim