Peter Hays Gries

Bio: Peter Hays Gries is an academic researcher from University of Oklahoma. The author has contributed to research in topics: China & Nationalism. The author has an hindex of 25, co-authored 72 publications receiving 1883 citations. Previous affiliations of Peter Hays Gries include University of Manchester & University of Colorado Boulder.

Disillusionment and dismay: How Chinese netizens think and feel about the two Koreas

Abstract: North Korea’s military aggression is probably best explained by the leadership transition in Pyongyang. And China’s policy response was likely driven by “traditionalists” within the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party and conservatives within the People’s Liberation Army.1 But China’s 2010 behavior was deeply alarming to South Koreans expecting that increasing PRC–ROK economic interdependence and interpersonal interactions would lead to improved bilateral relations. Th e 2010 setback in bilateral relations raised a serious question in Seoul: how do Chinese feel and think about the two Koreas?

Liberals, Conservatives, and Latin America: How Ideology Divides Americans over Immigration and Foreign Aid

Abstract: Based on an original US survey, this article argues that, on average, US conservatives today feel substantially cooler toward Latin American countries than liberals do. They also desire massively tougher Mexico border policies and much less foreign aid than liberals do. Averages can hide substantial differences within groups, however. Not all liberals and conservatives are alike, and their differences shape attitudes toward Latin America. For instance, our survey reveals that libertarians and economic conservatives oppose foreign aid to places like Haiti out of a belief in the Protestant ethic of self-help and opposition to income redistribution. Communitarians and economic liberals, by contrast, are more supportive of foreign aid to Haiti. Cultural conservatives fear the impact of Mexican immigration on Christian values and a WASP American national identity more than cultural liberals do. But race and racism continue to divide Americans the most consistently in their attitudes and policy preferences toward Latin America. The policy implications of ideologically divided public opinion for US immigration reform are also addressed. Resumen: En base a una encuesta original estadounidense, este articulo sostiene que, en promedio, los conservadores estadounidenses tienen una actitud significativamente mas fria hacia los paises latinoamericanos que los liberales. Ademas, desean una politica sumamente dura con respecto a las polizas de la frontera con Mexico y mucho menos ayuda internacional en comparacion a los liberales. Sin embargo, los promedios pueden esconder diferencias significativas entre los grupos. Distintos tipos de liberales y conservadores se preocupan por distintos temas, lo cual influye diferencias ideologicas generalizadas. Por ejemplo, nuestra encuesta revela que los libertarios y los conservadores en la economia oponen ayuda internacional a paises como Haiti basado en la creencia en la etica protestante de auto-ayuda, y en la oposicion a la redistribucion de ingresos en terminos generales. Los comunitarios y los liberales en la economia, por lo contrario, muestran mas apoyo a la ayuda internacional a Haiti. Tambien, los conservadores culturales temen el impacto de la inmigracion Mexicana en los valores cristianos y la identidad nacional estadounidense WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) mas que los liberales. Sin embargo, es el racismo que sigue en polarizar a los estadounidenses de manera consistente en las actitudes y las preferencias politicas hacia America Latina. Tambien se aborda el tema de las implicaciones politicas para la reforma migratoria de la opinion publica dividida ideologicamente.

Are the US and China fated to fight? How narratives of ‘power transition’ shape great power war or peace

Abstract: Are the United States (US) and China destined to fall into a ‘Thucydides trap’ of power transitions leading to great power conflict? This study explores how the intersubjective perception o...

Taiwanese Views of China and the World: Party Identification, Ethnicity, and Cross–Strait Relations

Abstract: This article presents results from a nationally representative survey conducted in Taiwan in November 2011 that explores Taiwanese attitudes toward China and the world. It demonstrates that while ‘blue’ (KMT) and ‘green’ (DPP) supporters maintained different attitudes towards China, few Taiwanese supported reunification. Taiwanese attitudes towards other countries, the sources of Taiwanese party identification, and policy implications for cross–Strait relations are also explored.

“Red China” and the “Yellow Peril”: How Ideology Divides Americans over China

Abstract: Based on a 2011 national survey, I argue that while US conservatives feel somewhat cooler toward the East Asian democracies than US liberals do, they feel much cooler toward China. Greater average conservative than liberal prejudice lingers, cooling attitudes toward the “Yellow Peril” of all Asian countries, but communism is a larger source of ideological differences over China. For cultural, social, economic, and political reasons, conservatives feel substantially cooler than liberals toward both communist countries in general and “Red China” in particular. I conclude by suggesting that with gerrymandering and ongoing ideological sorting, these ideological differences over China on Main Street may come to play a greater role in the making of US China policy.

Thinking fast and slow.

Abstract: 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.

Human Nature and the Social Order

Abstract: “WHAT can men do, what do they do, and what do they want to do ?”—these are the uestions that Prof. Thorndike seeks to answer in a very comprehensive and elaborate treatise. His undertaking is inspired by the belief that man has the possibility of almost complete control of his fate if only he will be guided by science, and that his failures are attributable to ignorance or folly. The main approach is through biological psychology, but all the social sciences are appealed to and utilized in an effort to deal with the human problem as a whole. The relative immaturity of the sciences dealing with man is continually stressed, but it is claimed that they provide a body of facts and principles which are “far above zero knowledge”, and that even now they are capable of affording valuable guidance in the shaping of public policy. Human Nature and the Social Order By E. L. Thorndike. Pp. xx + 1020. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1940.) 18s. net.

Why Men Rebel

Abstract: Why Men Rebel was first published in 1970 on the heels of a decade of political violence and protest not only in remote corners of Africa and Southeast Asia, but also at home in the United States. Forty years later, the world is riveted on uprisings in the Middle East, and the United States has been overtaken by a focus on international terrorism and a fascination with citizen movements at home and abroad. Do the arguments of 1970 apply today? Why Men Rebel lends new insight into contemporary challenges of transnational recruitment and organization, multimedia mobilization, and terrorism.