Impersonal Influence

People's perceptions of the attitudes and experiences of mass collectives are an increasingly important force in contemporary political life. In Impersonal Influence, Mutz goes beyond simply providing examples of how impersonal influence matters in the political process to provide a micro-level understanding of why information about distant and impersonal others often influence people's political attitudes and behaviors. Impersonal Influence is worthy of attention both from the standpoint of its impact on contemporary politics, and because of its potential to expand the boundaries of our understanding of social influence processes, and media's relation to them. The book's conclusions do not exonerate media from the effects of inaccurate portrayals of collective experience or opinion, but they suggest that the ways in which people are influenced by these perceptions are in themselves, not so much deleterious to democracy as absolutely necessary to promoting accountability in a large scale society.

This book is about how individuals make political decisions and form impressions of politicians and policies, with a strong emphasis on the role of the mass media in those processes.

Impersonal influence is about how people are affected by their perceptions of the collective opinions or experiences of others--things such as the well-publicized results of opinion polls (in the case of others' opinions), or media's coverage of the collective experiences of others (such as the extent to which others are experiencing financial problems or are being victimized by crimes). Media content is particularly well suited to serving as a credible channel of information about large-scale collective phenomena. Coverage of the collective opinions (in the case of perceptions of social problems such as crime or unemployment) alters people's political attitudes in surprising, yet subtle ways. These kinds of effects have important implications for the quality of public opinion and the accountability of political leaders in a mass mediated democracy.

The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication is the definitive single-source reference work on the subject, with state-of-the-art and in-depth scholarly reflection on the key issues within political communication from leading international experts. It is available both online and in print. Explores pertinent/salient topics within political science, sociology, psychology, communication and many other disciplines Theory, empirical research and academic as well as professional debate are widely covered in this truly international and comparative work Provides clear definitions and explanations which are both cross-national and cross-disciplinary by nature Offers an unprecedented level of authority, accuracy and balance, with contributions from leading international experts in their associated fields Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available at Wiley Online Library Named Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 by Choice Magazine, a publication of the American Library Association

"Exact but not exacting, this is a fine work of overview and analysis; it makes an excellent contribution to the literature on power and freedom." Philip Pettit, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton University "In this work, the author assumes the task of a ‘logical clean-up’ – an extremely valuable contribution to the promotion of scientific rigour and clarity in political scholarship." [This book] "gives the reader orientation in a conceptual jungle." [It is] "an excellent analysis of the relationships between normative and social power." Ernesto Garzón Valdés, Prof. em.

Whenever we interact with other people, we influence them--and they influence us. Within this sphere, neutrality is an impossibility. Instead, we must learn to think in terms of good and bad ways of influencing, and here the keyword is respect. The need for respectful influence is no less critical when dealing with religious influence, especially in the relationship between children and adults. In this book, longtime director of the Christian Institute of Education in Denmark, Carsten Hjorth Pedersen, provides valuable guidance for parents, educators, teachers, club leaders, and preachers who influence others in work or leisure. In a language accessible to all readers, the author shows the way to a healthy balance--a balance that relies on the will to confront, but without letting down the other person, neither through intimacy nor desertion.

Arsić unpacks Ralph Waldo Emerson’s repeated assertion that our reality and our minds are in constant flux. Her readings of a broad range of Emerson’s writings are guided by a central question: what does it really mean to maintain that everything fluctuates, is relational, and so changes its identity?