Publications/Forthcoming
“The Polarizing Effect of Partisan Echo Chambers” (with Sara B. Hobolt and James Tilley) American Political Science Review, 2023.
Abstract: We are witnessing increasing partisan polarization across the world. It is often argued that partisan ‘echo chambers’ are one of the drivers of both policy and affective polarization. In this paper, we develop and test the argument that the political homogeneity of people’s social environment shapes polarization. Using an innovative, large-scale pre-registered ‘lab-in-the-field’ experiment in the UK, we examine how polarization is influenced by partisan group homogeneity. We recruit nationally-representative partisans and assign them to discuss a salient policy issue, either with like-minded partisans (an echo chamber) or in a mixed partisan group. This allows us to examine how group composition affects polarization. In line with our expectations, we find that partisan echo chambers increase both policy and affective polarization compared to mixed discussion groups. This has important implications for our understanding of the drivers of polarization and for how outgroup animosity might be ameliorated in the mass public.
Katharina Lawall, Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte, Florian Foos & Joshua Townsley. “Negative Political Identities and Costly Political Action” (Forthcoming at the Journal of Politics)
Available online: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/730718
Abstract: Elite and mass level politics in many Western democracies is increasingly characterised by the expression of negative feelings towards political out-groups. While the existence of these feelings is well-documented, there is little evidence on the consequences of activating political identities during election campaigns. We test whether fundraising emails containing negative or positive political identity cues lead party supporters to donate money via a large pre-registered digital eld experiment conducted in collaboration with a British political party. We find that emails containing negative as opposed to positive identity cues lead to a higher number and frequency of donations. We also find that negative identity cues were only effective when paired with an issue identity rather than a traditional party identity cue, resulting in a 15% increase in the probability of donating over the untreated control. Our results provide novel experimental evidence on the behavioural effects of activating identities in real-world political campaigns.
Working papers
Lawall, Katharina. “Gender-immigration messages: How women’s rights are used to normalize anti-immigration views”
Pre-print available online: https://osf.io/5w48g
Abstract: How do extreme political views become acceptable? We argue that when previously unacceptable positions are ‘normatively framed’ as a defense of liberal democratic values, voters will find the position more acceptable. We examine this at the example of gender-immigration messages: statements using women’s rights to justify anti-immigration claims. Gender-immigration messages should make anti-immigration views and parties more acceptable. To test this, we conduct survey experiments, varying whether respondents are exposed to a gender-immigration message, an immigration message, a gender message, or no message. We find that normative framing increases the acceptability of anti-immigration views among all voters (in Norway) and among women, compared to men (in Germany). However, we do not find effects of gender-immigration messages on radical right support or the direct expression of anti-immigrant views. These findings have important implications for our understanding of normative framing as a powerful legitimizing device.
Lawall, Katharina. “My enemy’s enemy is my friend: the implications of negative partisanship in multi-party systems”
Abstract: Strong negative feelings towards political parties are common in Western democracies but their implications for political attitudes beyond their disliked party are still poorly understood. This paper develops a theoretical argument positing that negative partisanship should affect how voters feel about multiple political parties, not just the one that they dislike. To test this theory, respondents in a survey experiment were assigned to either a positive partisan prime, a negative partisan prime or no prime. In line with the idea of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”, there is evidence that activating feelings of dislike towards a political party can move negative partisans closer to another party. These findings have important implications for our understanding of negative partisanship and its role in shaping political preferences.
Lawall, Katharina. “Mobilising migrants: how effective are online interventions in increasing political participation among immigrants?“
In Europe today, there is still a large gap in political participation between
immigrants and native citizens. For example, although mobile EU citizens (EU citizens residing outside their home country) have the right to vote in local elections in their country of residence, they often do not participate in these elections. These gaps in participation matter, as they can exacerbate existing political inequalities. This research project explores if social media interventions (Facebook groups and pages) are effective in increasing the political participation of mobile EU citizens. The project tests this through a field experiment carried out with local civil society partner organisations in the run up to local elections in Germany.
Dr Katharina Lawall 