Cross-National Comparison in Political Ignorance and Competence among Voters and Political Culture

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26285036
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: Kwansei Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: YAMADA Masahiro 関西学院大学, 法学部, 教授 (40260468)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 三浦 麻子 関西学院大学, 文学部, 教授 (30273569) ; 善教 将大 関西学院大学, 法学部, 助教 (50625085) ; 小林 哲郎 国立情報学研究所, 情報社会相関研究系, 准教授 (60455194) ; 尾野 嘉邦 東北大学, 法学(政治学)研究科(研究院), 教授 (70598664)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): INAMASU Kazunori 関西学院大学, 社会学部, 准教授 (10582041)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: DK回答 / 社会的望ましさ / ジェンダー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Based on the survey experiments conducted in Japan and the U.S., we observe several cultural differences in the forming of DK ("Don't Know") responses to political questions. The following are our observations. (1) In Japan, when there is a middle point in the choice for responses, the rate of DK response tends to be lower, but not in the U.S. (2) When the Japanese see the distribution of public opinion, we observe that the rate of DK responses is lower, but this is not true for the U.S. (3) We observe social desirability biases concerning gender and immigrants issues in the U.S., but not in Japan.
These findings suggest the necessity of examining cultural differences in the forming of political opinions, especially when we focus on social desirability biases. Whether social desirability biases influence some issues depends on the cultural context.

Free Research Field

政治学