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Research Interests: Demography, Health Behavior, Mental Health, Life Style, Medicine, and 15 moreActivities of Daily Living, Intimate Partner Violence, Population, Humans, Physical Health, Female, Pennsylvania, Health Status, Middle Aged, Adult, Health risk, Preterm Birth, General Population, cultural characteristics, and Paediatrics and reproductive medicine
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When do citizens rely on party cues, and when do they incorporate policy-relevant information into their political attitudes? Recent research suggests that members of the public, when they possess some policy-relevant information, use... more
When do citizens rely on party cues, and when do they incorporate policy-relevant information into their political attitudes? Recent research suggests that members of the public, when they possess some policy-relevant information, use that information as much as they use party cues when forming political attitudes. We aim to advance this research by specifying conditions that motivate people to use content over cues and vice versa. Specifically, we believe that increased issue salience motivates people to go beyond heuristics and engage in the systematic processing of policy-relevant information. Using data from a survey experiment that isolates the effects of policy-relevant information, party cues, and issue salience, we find that people are more likely to incorporate policy-relevant information when thinking about hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a relatively high-salience issue. When thinking about storm-water management, a relatively low-salience issue, people are more likely to rely on party cues.
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This article uses pre-election survey data, post-election survey data, and voter registration and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2016 presidential and U.S. Senate races in Pennsylvania. This analysis shows how changes in... more
This article uses pre-election survey data, post-election survey data, and voter registration and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2016 presidential and U.S. Senate races in Pennsylvania. This analysis shows how changes in voter registration and voter turnout in specific areas of the Commonwealth, driven in large part by less-educated voters, those dissatisfied with the current direction of the country, and the performance of the incumbent president, explain the 2016 election results.
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Scholars have long argued that ideology has an affective component as well as a cognitive one. Most studies seeking to identify the emotional aspects of ideology have done so indirectly, by asking individuals to provide self-reports of... more
Scholars have long argued that ideology has an affective component as well as a cognitive one. Most studies seeking to identify the emotional aspects of ideology have done so indirectly, by asking individuals to provide self-reports of their feelings. Recently, however, scholars have employed direct measures of emotion (i.e., measures of autonomic nervous system response) in order to explore the connections between affect and ideology. This paper relies upon such measures but differs from previous work by not priming an emotional response in subjects. Instead, we measure subjects’ affective responses to what appears to be an entirely cognitive process, namely, defining ideological terms. Our results suggest, among other things, that simply invoking ideological terms elicits a significant emotional response in subjects. Furthermore, political interest and political knowledge play important roles in moderating affect in ideological self-identifiers. Interest increases affective reactions while knowledge calms them.
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This article uses pre-election survey, post-election survey, voter registration, and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2018 midterm elections for governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania. This... more
This article uses pre-election survey, post-election survey, voter registration, and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2018 midterm elections for governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania. This analysis shows that the results of the 2018 midterm races in Pennsylvania were nationalized. Feelings about the president’s performance drove voter interest and turnout, and also factored into the choices that voters made in the gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House races. Voter preferences in each race followed the same pattern: even after accounting for partisanship and ideology, those who were dissatisfied with President Trump’s performance were more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate. The results suggest that the 2018 midterm results were a repudiation of the Trump presidency, but not a return to the state’s pre-2016 politics.
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Data set for replication data
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Research Interests: Health Behavior, Mental Health, Life Style, Medicine, Activities of Daily Living, and 15 moreIntimate Partner Violence, Rural Health, Humans, Physical Health, Female, Pennsylvania, Health Status, Middle Aged, Questionnaires, Adult, Health risk, Preterm Birth, General Population, cultural characteristics, and Paediatrics and reproductive medicine
Research Interests: Health Promotion, Health Behavior, Pregnancy, Humans, Female, and 15 morePennsylvania, Health Status, Newborn Infant, Older Women, Adult, Binge drinking, Maternal Age, Analysis of Variance, High Cholesterol, Maternal Behavior, Health risk, Pregnancy Outcome, Age Groups, Pregnancy complications, and Paediatrics and reproductive medicine
Using an original online experiment, we test whether the appropriation of Amish group identity influences voter behavior. We do not find that the appropriation of Amish group identity influences intended vote choice. However, there is... more
Using an original online experiment, we test whether the appropriation of Amish group identity influences voter behavior. We do not find that the appropriation of Amish group identity influences intended vote choice. However, there is evidence that associating the Amish with a candidate who was subjected to negative advertisements resulted in a reduction in approval rating for the Amish as a group. In addition, we find that the attitudes toward the Amish vary by respondent ideology and, consistent with the contact hypothesis, those individuals who interact regularly with the Amish reported more favorable ratings toward the Amish. The results raise important questions regarding the appropriation of a group's image in the course of a political campaign.
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Objective: To evaluate the impact of the Nickel Mines shooting October 2, 2006 on the psychological stress and birth outcomes of Amish women living in proximity to the event. Methods: Data are from a population-based cohort study of 202... more
Objective: To evaluate the impact of the Nickel Mines shooting October 2, 2006 on the psychological stress and birth outcomes of Amish women living in proximity to the event. Methods: Data are from a population-based cohort study of 202 Amish women of childbearing age interviewed at baseline (winter 2004-2005) and 3 years later (winter 2007-2008). Data are also from Pennsylvania Department of Health birth records 2004-2008. Results: There was no apparent impact of the shooting on depression, social support, stress, number of diagnoses, sleep, doctor visits, number of medications, or anxiety. Nor was there an apparent impact on these outcomes when the distance of homes from the Nickel Mines school was taken into account. Timing of birth relative to the shooting apparently did not affect birthweight, gestation length or the probability of a low birthweight baby. Conclusions: Although the Nickel Mines shooting had a profound impact on the Amish community, we found no difference in Amis...
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Scholars have long argued that ideology has an affective component as well as a cognitive one. Most studies seeking to identify the emotional aspects of ideology have done so indirectly, by asking individuals to provide self-reports of... more
Scholars have long argued that ideology has an affective component as well as a cognitive one. Most studies seeking to identify the emotional aspects of ideology have done so indirectly, by asking individuals to provide self-reports of their feelings. Recently, however, scholars have employed direct measures of emotion (i.e., measures of autonomic nervous system response) in order to explore the connections between affect and ideology. This paper relies upon such measures but differs from previous work by not priming an emotional response in subjects. Instead, we measure subjects’ affective responses to what appears to be an entirely cognitive process, namely, defining ideological terms. Our results suggest, among other things, that simply invoking ideological terms elicits a significant emotional response in subjects. Furthermore, political interest and political knowledge play important roles in moderating affect in ideological self-identifiers. Interest increases affective reacti...
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... being asked for their reactions immediately after hearing the message, the possibility of so-called demand characteristics cannot be ruled out (Shimp, Hyatt, & ... Christine Sweeney and Janine Pillitteri offered... more
... being asked for their reactions immediately after hearing the message, the possibility of so-called demand characteristics cannot be ruled out (Shimp, Hyatt, & ... Christine Sweeney and Janine Pillitteri offered assistance in data management and preliminary work on this project. ...
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This article uses pre-election survey data, post-election survey data, and voter registration and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2016 presidential and U.S. Senate races in Pennsylvania. This analysis shows how changes in... more
This article uses pre-election survey data, post-election survey data, and voter registration and election data to interpret the outcomes of the 2016 presidential and U.S. Senate races in Pennsylvania. This analysis shows how changes in voter registration and voter turnout in specific areas of the Commonwealth, driven in large part by less-educated voters, those dissatisfied with the current direction of the country, and the performance of the incumbent president, explain the 2016 election results.
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Research Interests: Law and Human Rights
We performed a health needs assessment for three Plain communities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from a random sample of households. Compared with the general population of adults, Plain respondents were more likely to be married, to... more
We performed a health needs assessment for three Plain communities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from a random sample of households. Compared with the general population of adults, Plain respondents were more likely to be married, to have children, and they had large families; they were more likely to drink well water, to eat fruit and vegetables, to drink raw milk, and to live on a farm. Plain respondents had better physical and mental health and were less likely to have been diagnosed with various medical conditions compared with the general population of adults in Lancaster County but Old Order Mennonite respondents were more likely to have been diagnosed compared with Old Order Amish respondents. Plain respondents usually have a regular doctor and often receive preventive care but Old Order Mennonite respondents were more likely to have a regular doctor, to receive preventive care, to have had their children vaccinated, and to receive routine dental care compared with Old Or...
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Rationale: Asthma is a disease of increasing prevalence characterized by airway inflammation, hyperresponsiveness and reversible airflow limitation. It has been observed that rural populations, such as the Amish of Central Pennsylvania,... more
Rationale: Asthma is a disease of increasing prevalence characterized by airway inflammation, hyperresponsiveness and reversible airflow limitation. It has been observed that rural populations, such as the Amish of Central Pennsylvania, have a disproportionately lower prevalence of asthma than the general population (also known as the “English”) for reasons that are incompletely understood. We hypothesize that biobehavioral risk factors for asthma are differentially distributed in the Amish and general populations of Central Pennsylvania. Methods: To assess differences in risk of asthma between the Amish and the general population, we performed a retrospective case-control study of 2,290 women enrolled in the Central Pennsylvania Women’s Health Study (CePAWHS). This study was conducted in a 28-county region in Central Pennsylvania (PA) from 2004 to 2005. Asthma status was assessed via self-report of doctor diagnosed asthma in a population-based telephone survey of 2,002 women in the...
Researchers working within the United States will encounter few cultures as foreign to them as the Amish. Their purposeful self-exclusion from modern American life has given few of us the opportunity personally to encounter and understand... more
Researchers working within the United States will encounter few cultures as foreign to them as the Amish. Their purposeful self-exclusion from modern American life has given few of us the opportunity personally to encounter and understand their rich cultural traditions. Improper handling of such a culture could defeat efforts to collect some very important survey data. In 2004, Franklin & Marshall College, together with Pennsylvania State University, received a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to research the prevalence of risk factors for preterm birth and low-birth-weight babies among minority populations residing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The first phase of the project included face-to-face interviews with Amish women between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. A group of religious conservatives attracted by a promise of religious freedom, the Amish first migrated to the New World in the 1700s. Lancaster now has the second highest number of Amish settlem...
Abstract will be provided by author.
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The purpose of this study was to examine in a systematic, controlled fashion the reactions of smokers to scientifically correct information about the risks of smoking Light cigarettes (about 6-15 mg tar by the FTC method). Random-digit... more
The purpose of this study was to examine in a systematic, controlled fashion the reactions of smokers to scientifically correct information about the risks of smoking Light cigarettes (about 6-15 mg tar by the FTC method). Random-digit dialing, computer-assisted telephone interviews were used to locate daily smokers of Light cigarettes. In an experimental design, smokers were randomly assigned to listen (n = 293) or not (n = 275) to a persuasive simulated radio message on the risks of Light cigarettes; 108 of those who did not listen to the message in the first part of the interview were played the message in the second part, to evaluate some repeated-measures effects. Those who heard the message were more likely to report that one Light cigarette could give a smoker the same amount of tar as one Regular cigarette and that Light cigarettes were more dangerous: 55% said the message made them think more about quitting and 46% said the message increased the amount they wanted to quit; 42% said that after hearing the message they thought Light cigarettes were more dangerous. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the message acted to increase intention to quit smoking by increasing the desire to quit smoking. Seventy-three per cent of the smokers agreed that it was important to play such messages widely on the radio; 77% agreed that there should be a warning on packs that vent blocking increases tar; 61% agreed that the location of filter vents should be marked. The majority of smokers of Light cigarettes seem to value being informed that Light cigarettes are as dangerous for them as Regular cigarettes, and this information increases their intentions to quit smoking.
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ABSTRACT Abstract will be provided by author.
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Research Interests: Education, Advertising, Logistic Regression, Interviews, Humans, and 15 moreSmoking Cessation, Smoking, Female, Male, Massachusetts, Middle Aged, Questionnaires, Adult, Health Problems, Analysis of Variance, Age effect, Chi Square Distribution, Logistic Models, attitude to health, and Medical and Health Sciences
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Research Interests: Health Behavior, Mental Health, Life Style, Activities of Daily Living, Intimate Partner Violence, and 15 moreRural Health, Humans, Physical Health, Female, Social Environment, Pennsylvania, Health Status, Middle Aged, Questionnaires, Adult, Health risk, Preterm Birth, General Population, cultural characteristics, and Paediatrics and reproductive medicine
With the movement of the victim to the forefront of the criminal justice system, more and more services have been developed to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by the victimization experience. Some services seek to alleviate the... more
With the movement of the victim to the forefront of the criminal justice system, more and more services have been developed to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by the victimization experience. Some services seek to alleviate the psychological suffering of crime victims and include such programs as crisis intervention, individual and group counseling, and so forth. Several studies have examined to what extent such programming can actually improve the psychological functioning of crime victims. The present study examines that question through a quasi-experimental design in which victims who used services and victims who did not use services participated in a statewide telephone survey. The major finding of the study adds to those of previous studies: There is no significant difference between service and nonservice users when it comes to improvement in the psychological functioning of crime victims.
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We performed a health needs assessment for five Plain communities in Pennsylvania from a random sample of households, comparing them to the general population of Pennsylvania adults. Plain respondents were more likely to drink well water,... more
We performed a health needs assessment for five Plain communities in Pennsylvania from a random sample of households, comparing them to the general population of Pennsylvania adults. Plain respondents were more likely to drink well water, as likely to eat fruit and vegetables and much more likely to drink raw milk and be exposed to agricultural chemicals. Plain respondents were less likely to receive screening exams compared to the general population and there was variation from settlement to settlement in whether respondents had a regular doctor, whether they received preventive screenings or had their children vaccinated, with Mifflin County Amish generally lowest in these and Plain Mennonites highest. Plain respondents reported good physical and mental health compared to the general population but Groffdale Mennonite respondents had a high proportion of diagnoses of depression and were more likely to be receiving treatment for a mental health condition. Most Plain respondents wou...