Cognitive Dissonance and Students’ Opinions on the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

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Notes

The authors wish to thank Liam Delaney for his helpful comments on early drafts of the paper.

1 P. Everts and P. Isernia, ‘The Polls – Trends: The War in Iraq’, Public Opinion Quarterly 69/2 (Summer 2005) p.273.

2 J. E. Mueller, War, Presidents and Public Opinion (New York: Wiley 1973).

3 F.J. Bing West, ‘Waiting for Godot in Iraq’, Military Review (Jan.–Feb. 2007) pp.2–11.

4 S.J. Cimbala, ‘Military Persuasion, Intelligence and the War on Terror’, Defense and Security Analysis 22/1 (Mar. 2006) p.64.

5 A.J. Berinsky and J.N. Druckman, ‘Public Opinion Research and Support for the Iraq War’, Public Opinion Quarterly 71/1 (Spring 2007) p.126.

6 Prime Minster Tony Blair’s speech on the future of the UK’s defence 〈www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page10735.asp〉 accessed on 25 March 2007.

7 J. Bartle, ‘Political Awareness, Opinion Constraint and the Stability of Ideological Positions’, Political Studies 48/3 (Jun. 2000) p. 467.

8 R.W. Neuman, The Paradox of Mass Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 1986).

9 But see R. Jervis, ‘Understanding Beliefs’, Political Psychology 27/5 (Oct. 2006) pp.641–63.

10 L. Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford UP 1957).

11 J. Hochschild, ‘Where You Stand Depends on What You See: Connections Among Values, Perceptions of Fact, and Political Prescriptions’, in J. Kuklinski (ed.), Citizens and Politics: Perspectives from Political Psychology (Cambridge: CUP 2001) pp.313–40.

12 P.D. Sweeney and K.L. Gruber, ‘Selective Exposure: Voter Information Preferences and the Watergate Affair’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46/6 (1984) p.1208.

13 P. Dunleavy, ‘Political Behaviour: Institutional and Experiential Approaches’, in R.E. Goodin and H.D. Klingemann (eds.), A New Handbook of Political Science (Oxford: OUP 1996) p.286.

14 See J.M. Sellers, ‘Place, Post‐Industrial Change and the New Left’, European Journal of Political Research 33/2 (Mar. 1998) p.191; R. Inglehart, The Silent Revolution (Princeton UP 1977) p. 263.

15 ‘Data Section – Republic of Ireland’, Irish Political Studies 21/1 (Feb. 2006) p.26.

16 M. Kennedy and D. McMahon, Obligations and Responsibilities: Ireland and the United Nations, 1955–2005 (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration 2005).

17 Due to reasons of space, these materials are not given here; they are available on request from the authors.

18 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/map/yugoslavia/, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1076399.stm, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/811140.stm. Websites accessed on 14–18 Jan. 2005.

19 R.E. Petty and J.T. Cacioppo, ‘Forewarning, Cognitive Responding, and Resistance to Persuasion’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35/9 (1977) p.646.

20 R.R. Lau and D.P. Redlawsk, ‘Advantages and Disadvantages of Cognitive Heuristics in Political Decision Making’, American Journal of Political Science 45/4 (2001) pp. 952–3.

21 L. Festinger, Conflict, Decision and Dissonance (Stanford UP 1964).

22 P.E. Tetlock and A.S.R. Manstead, ‘Impression Management versus Intrapsychic Explanations in Social Psychology: A Useful Dichotomy?’, Psychological Review 92/1 (1985) pp. 59–77.

23 A.J. Bellamy, ‘The Great Beyond: Rethinking Military Responses to New Wars and Complex Emergencies’, Defence Studies 2/1 (Spring 2002) p.26.

24 Briefing note for UK government seminar on defence policy, Michael Clarke, King’s College London 〈www.number-10.gov.uk/files/pdf/Michael%20Clarke.pdf〉, accessed on 24 July 2007.

25 Lt. Col. D.P. Chapmanm, US Army National Guard, ‘Soldiers in the Public Square: The Legacy of Newburgh’, Military Review (Jan.–Feb. 2006) p.103.

26 It is open to further debate and research as to as to whether or not the handling of the intelligence dossier and the subsequent events of David Kelly’s death and the Hutton Inquiry have had an unequivocally negative impact on UK public opinion. See E. O’Malley, ‘Setting Choices, Controlling Outcomes: The Operation of Prime Ministerial Influence and the UK’s Decision to Invade Iraq’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9/1 (Jun. 2007) p.15.

27 R.F. Belli, ‘Editorial: Announcing a Special Issue on the Cognitive Aspects of Survey Methodology’, Applied Cognitive Psychology 19/3 (2005) pp.245–7.