자연주의적 탐구조사(Naturalistic Inquiry)

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

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The Environmental Protection Agency

Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace

A survey was mailed to elected officials (mayors and city council) from a sample of 52 rural communities in Idaho and all 7 communities with populations above 20,000 to examine whether there is a relationship between environmental policy issues and various independent variables such as economic type, age, gender, rural/ urban, political ideology, and percentage of life lived in the current community. One-hundred and fifty-five (155) out of three hundred twenty seven (327) respondents returned the survey for a response rate of 47%. The findings reveal that while the rural/urban dichotomy consistently predicted for questions on “trust of information sources,” overall economic base was a better predictor of attitudes toward environmental issues and policy.

Local elected officials and environmental policy: Does rural matter anymore?

Our study focuses on Islamophobia and the power of facts versus the power of a narrative in shaping individual opinion toward Muslims. We utilise an experimental design to explore three research questions: (1) Is Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment lowered in narrative or factual treatments?; (2) What are the differential effects of the treatments by ideological orientation?; and (3) Is Islamophobia a predictor of policy stances? We find that neither the narrative or factual treatments lowered Islamophobia or anti-Muslim sentiment. However, moderates were significantly influenced by the Facts Treatment, expressing lower levels of anti-Muslim sentiment. Finally, the treatments significantly influenced policy positions for individuals in the Facts Treatment group, who were less likely to support funding increases for border security than subjects in the narrative treatment. Our findings have implications for understanding persuasion, identity protection cognition, and the persistence of Islamophobia within the context of the power of narrative.

The Narrative Policy Framework and Sticky Beliefs: An Experiment Studying Islamophobia

Objective
Economic policy in late 2008 and through 2009 led to unprecedented media coverage and debate. This debate played out on the 24-hour news cycle of cable news networks. Traditionally, media has been viewed as merely reporting the news, but today evidence suggests that the media is an active player for or against certain policies. This study asks: “How did the three major cable news networks cover the economic crisis of 2008–2009 and how did this coverage converge or diverge from the impacts that economists thought these policies actually had on the economy?”

Methods
We content analyzed 50 news transcripts each from Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

Results
We found that MSNBC primarily constructed Democratic Party officials and their allies as heroes (fixers of the problem), and that Fox News primarily constructed Democratic Party officials and their allies as villains (the cause of the problem). Fox News when discussing the economic policies constructed more costs (victims) than benefits (beneficiaries), whereas both MSNBC and CNN constructed more benefits (beneficiaries) than costs (victims). Overall, MSNBC was the most pro-Democratic Party in its narratives, with Fox News the most pro-Republican Party, and CNN leaning Democratic but also mixed in its narratives. Nonpartisan economic analyses showed that despite the pessimistic narratives about financial reform found in Fox News, the economic policies had a positive impact on the economy.

Conclusions
This study concludes with an analysis of the potential impact of media coverage on U.S. public policy making as a new U.S. president takes office.

Media Narratives Versus Evidence in Economic Policy Making: The 2008–2009 Financial Crisis*

In today’s world characterized by political tribalism, narrative is an increasingly important concept for understanding politics. The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) seeks to describe, explain, an...

Using the Narrative Policy Framework in the Teaching of Introduction to Politics

This research uses an alternative economic composition methodology that classifies 52 Idaho rural communities. This methodology classifies communities as dependent, diversified, or post-industrial. A survey was mailed to elected officials (mayors and city council) from the sample of 52 rural communities to examine whether there is a relationship between environmental policy support and economic type. One hundred and thirty-three respondents (48%) returned the surveys. The findings reveal that the economic composition of the community was related to views of environmental policy on 7 of 16 measures while controlling for gender, political ideology, and age.

Mark K. McBeth

Papers

Local elected officials and environmental policy: Does rural matter anymore?

The Narrative Policy Framework and Sticky Beliefs: An Experiment Studying Islamophobia

Media Narratives Versus Evidence in Economic Policy Making: The 2008–2009 Financial Crisis*

Using the Narrative Policy Framework in the Teaching of Introduction to Politics

Rural Elected Officials, Environmental Policy, and Economic Composition