"Reactionaries and Relatability: How Russia Raises Support for its Foreign Policy Among U.S. Conservatives by Signaling Similarity"
Overview: This piece, co-authored with John P. Harden, is under review at The Journal of Politics.
Abstract: There is widespread concern that Russian propaganda undermines the democratic discourse in the United States. The last ten years have also seen a notable partisan divergence in foreign policy views as Republicans become less hawkish toward Russia. This is occurring as the Russian government tries to promote Russian foreign policy in terms that appeal to these conservative audiences. To date, no study has tested the effect Russian propaganda has on conservative Americans' support for Russian foreign policy. We use a survey experiment to test the receptivity of conservative Americans to two types of Russian propaganda: messages that activate culture war issues and messages that exploit the psychological needs of narcissists. Our pilot study (N=395) finds evidence that Russian culture war rhetoric increases support for Russian aggression among U.S. conservatives who feel economically marginalized. Intriguingly, culture war rhetoric reduces support among U.S. conservatives who feel culturally marginalized.
Abstract: There is widespread concern that Russian propaganda undermines the democratic discourse in the United States. The last ten years have also seen a notable partisan divergence in foreign policy views as Republicans become less hawkish toward Russia. This is occurring as the Russian government tries to promote Russian foreign policy in terms that appeal to these conservative audiences. To date, no study has tested the effect Russian propaganda has on conservative Americans' support for Russian foreign policy. We use a survey experiment to test the receptivity of conservative Americans to two types of Russian propaganda: messages that activate culture war issues and messages that exploit the psychological needs of narcissists. Our pilot study (N=395) finds evidence that Russian culture war rhetoric increases support for Russian aggression among U.S. conservatives who feel economically marginalized. Intriguingly, culture war rhetoric reduces support among U.S. conservatives who feel culturally marginalized.
