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Measuring the cynicism epidemic: Improving conceptual and operational definition of political cynicism

Quenette, Andrea Marie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371055163

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Communication.
Political cynicism has been identified as a potentially negative influence on overall democratic health; however this construct suffers from problematic conceptual and operational definition in the literature, which severely limits the effectiveness of cynicism research. Further complicating this problem is the confounded relationship between political trust and political cynicism – many studies define cynicism as merely mistrust in the government or political system. This confound makes the relationship between trust and cynicism unclear as it fails to explain situations where citizens may be high in trust, yet cynical, or low in trust but also low in cynicism. This study was designed to reconceptualize political cynicism and political trust in order to develop measures that more accurately portray the nature of the relationship between cynicism and political trust. To resolve problems with measurement and definition, political trust was defined as comprising four dimensions related to citizens’ perceptions of political actors – predictability, ability, honesty and perceptions of politician’s motivations. The fourth dimension, perception of motivations, was conceptualized as citizen’s perceptions about the reasons why politicians engage in particular behaviors. It was theorized that not only could citizens believe politicians act primarily in their own self-interest (cynical attitudes) but they could also fundamentally believe politicians take action they believe will improve the public good (altruistic attitudes) or they could remain skeptical – deciding the nature of the motivations behind political actions based on the specific situation. The perception of motivations subscale assessed the varied ways in which citizen’s might perceive politicians’ actions, allowing for a more accurate assessment of the ways in which citizens evaluate the actions of politicians working within the political system than current measures afford. Using two studies with different samples – one using undergraduate students and one using a diverse adult sample – this project developed and tested the new measures of political trust and political cynicism. Results indicated that the new political trust scale – the trust in politicians scale – is a reliable measure of political trust. Furthermore, the perception of motivations subscale was demonstrated to be both reliable and valid in its own right, but also more reliable and valid than existing measures of political cynicism – those developed by Jackson (2011a) and Cappella and Jamieson (1997). The discussion includes a review of the importance and utility of these new scales and how they might be used in future political communication research.
William Eveland, PhD (Advisor)
Gerald Kosicki, PhD (Committee Member)
Erik Nisbet, PhD (Committee Member)
259 p.
Communication; Political Science
political cynicism; political trust; news; media

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Quenette, A. M. (2013). Measuring the cynicism epidemic: Improving conceptual and operational definition of political cynicism [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371055163

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Quenette, Andrea. Measuring the cynicism epidemic: Improving conceptual and operational definition of political cynicism. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371055163.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Quenette, Andrea. "Measuring the cynicism epidemic: Improving conceptual and operational definition of political cynicism." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371055163

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1371055163
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.