Date of Award
8-11-2015
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Toby Bolsen
Second Advisor
Ryan Carlin
Third Advisor
Sarah Allen Gershon
Abstract
Political scientists have largely overlooked the issue of effort. It is a seemingly simple concept with great implications for the study of political behavior. With intuition alone we can often classify behaviors as more or less effortful. And many of the behaviors that interest political scientists concern this fundamental concept, but, somehow, we have failed to formally incorporate effort into our theories. Indeed, normatively speaking, citizens will engage the democratic process effortfully, not effortlessly. But what makes a behavior more or less effortful? How does the amount of effort expended in pursuit of a behavior affect the likelihood of actualizing that behavior? To answer these questions I have developed a resource model of political cognition which posits that effortful behaviors are essentially fueled by a limited, but renewable, supply of cognitive resources. In this dissertation I report the results of a series of experiments in which I apply the resource model to collective action behaviors as well as information processing. The results suggest that these behaviors, and mostly likely others as well, are, to a significant degree, dependent upon the sufficient availability of cognitive resources.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/7332968
Recommended Citation
Glas, Jeffrey, "Mental Effort and Political Psychology: How Cognitive Resources Facilitate Collective Action and Political Reasoning." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2015.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/7332968