Hamburg Lectures on Law and EconomicsWho approves of the TTIP? The roles of institutional trust and political mobilizationProf. Hans Pitlik, WiFo Wien, 18:15–19:45, Room 1083a (VMP 5)
9. November 2016
Prof. Hans Pitlik, WiFo Wien, 18:15–19:45, Room 1083a (VMP 5)
18:15–19:45, Room 1083a (VMP 5)
There is evidence that people vote for corrupt candidates even when they have information that their representatives have misbehaved in the past. We propose that ideology is an important factor explaining this voting behavior, and we tested two psychological mechanisms for this effect through an experimental approach conducted among Facebook users. We found that ideology strongly predicts voting for a corrupt candidate. We also identified evidence for two complementary psychological
mechanisms: a cognitive cost-benefit tradeoff and a change in perception. Our results hold for two different types of corruption: nepotism and monePolicy preference formation has become a major subject of empirical political, sociological and economic research. Evidence clearly shows that attitudes regarding economic policies and redistribution are not only shaped by narrow personal selfinterest, but even stronger so by core values, beliefs, and psychological traits. In 2013, the European Union and the United States initiated a political dialogue regarding a further deepening of their trade and investment relations, the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). The paper is concerned with the individual determinants of public support for the TTIP between the European Union and the United States. We focus on the role of trust in companies and in national and European political institutions in 28 EU Member States for attitude formation. Using data from a Eurobarometer Survey it is shown that disapproval is highly correlated with a lack of trust in European institutions and in bigger companies. Results indicate that anti-TTIP political campaigning is strongly associated with TTIP disapproval.