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Type of Document Dissertation Author Gaskins, Benjamin URN etd-07192011-161808 Title Religious Commitment and Political Information: How Religion Structures Political Understanding Degree Doctor of Philosophy Department Political Science, Department of Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Jason Barabas Committee Chair Jennifer Jerit Committee Member Laura Arpan University Representative Robert Jackson University Representative Keywords
- Religion and Politics
- religious commitment
- political knowledge
- information acquisition
- elite cues
Date of Defense 2011-06-15 Availability unrestricted Abstract In this dissertation, I assess the role of religious commitment in how individuals see the political information environment, learn about politics, and construct political opinions. While religiosity is an enormously complex concept, I argue that—at a fundamental level—people learn how to maintain religious beliefs in the face of potentially-hostile forces. These skills in belief-maintenance are then applied to politics, as religious individuals become adept at viewing the political world through a religious lens—incorporating information that supports their beliefs while rejecting or ignoring other types of information. This process will have an enormous effect on the type of political knowledge religious individuals possess, how they see objective and subjective political events, and how they react to elite cues. I argue that the role of religion in information acquisition will further play a vital part in democratic citizenship, namely in how individuals participate in politics. I examine these questions through a number of methods—using both experimental and cross-sectional data—and conclude that religion invokes a fundamental trade off in political participation. Rather than being an unambiguous democratic good or negative, religiosity’s effect on political participation is complex and conditional.Files
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