Study: Terror Warnings Up Approval Ratings

[maddezmom]

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - When the government issues a terror warning, the president's approval rating increases an average of nearly three points, a Cornell University sociologist says.



"The social theories predict it, and anecdotally we know it to be true. Now we have statistical science to confirm it," said Robb Willer, assistant director of Cornell's Sociology and Small Groups Laboratory.


On average, a terror warning prompted a 2.75 point increase in President George Bush (news - web sites)'s approval rating the following week, said Willer, who published his study in Current Research in Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed online journal.


Robert Greene, a professor of history and communication at Cazenovia College, said he did not doubt the correlation, but considered the small increase barely noteworthy.

more:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=6&u=/ap/20041026/ap_on_re_us/terror_warnings_popularity

They needed a study? :shrug:

[Catfight]

1. I perdict FRIDAY or MONDAY....yup....fake terror, fake president.

[AKing]

10. Course we'll hear it's nothing specific

And Gruppencommandant Ridge will tell us to go about our business

[maddezmom]

13. sludge trying it out a little early

LOL

[displacedtexan]

2. And every time a bell rings...

a minimum wage cashier laments that outsourced IT job.

[jkshaw]

11. Wonderful photo of wolves, displacedtexan

Thanks for that -- lovely grouping, typical stance. Great!

-- from a displaced northeasterner.

http://www.dragongoose.com

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. minimum wage cashier

are making the unemployment numbers look just peachy.

[saigon68]

3. Every time the bell rings

The simple rustic sheep salivates for his savior the CHIMPANZEE.

[Skittles]

4. it is indeed like Pavlov's bell

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[fdr_hst_fan]

5. No offense intended towards Cornell U,

but I didn't need their erudite study to tell me something I could see with mine own eyes; that's why Smirk periodically sends Tom "Fat-head" Ridge on TV to scare everyone-he can read polls as well as I can!

[54anickel]

6. Hope this gets a lot of play in the media. Might make them think twice -

Them meaning either the mal-admin to try this stunt before the election or the general public before they give him a higher rating. I know, that's expecting the idea of thinking for a change, but hey you gotta have hope.

[Nikepallas]

7. Not like you think

The Media loves those alerts more then Bush because they can increase their ratings.

[w4rma]

8. More than their own raitings.

They like to increase Bush's raitings too, so they can get some more media deregulation and expand and get more tax cuts for their big media corps (and especially for the owners of said big media corps). Oh, and outsourcing. The parent corporations of the various big media outlets want MORE outsourcing. They are multinationals and they are in charge of most of mainstream media.

[IChing]

9. Old news

I predict saturday night, sunday morning (happy halloween)
the aura effect around the alert is not yet known
cannot be done too late or too soon. The media needs
to chew on it for a few days to cram it down
the masses.

[Supersedeas]

14. but are you withholding something which could improve *'s ratings

[Steelangel]

15. yup, look at this picture

That is pretty obvious. Now with that fake terror video to 'distract' americans from 280 tons of explosives and it will boost his approval rating..

[struggle4progress]

16. Oh, but W&co would NEVER take advantage of this ... eom