Katerina Linos and Kimberly Twist (University of California, Berkeley - School of Law and University of California, Berkeley - Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science) have posted Can the Supreme Court Change Americans' Views? Comparing Experimental and Observational Methods on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
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Can the U.S. Supreme Court change Americans’ policy views? We surveyed a representative sample of Americans before and after two major Supreme Court decisions, embedding an experiment in the second survey. In contrast to much of the prior literature, we find that the Supreme Court can lead public opinion, even on hotly contested issues such as health care and immigration. Respondents who were offered clear messages in support of the majority’s reasoning reacted much more positively than respondents also reminded about the dissent. In addition, trust in the Court, partisan affiliation, and ethnic background mediated responsiveness. These findings invite us to revisit debates about the role of an unelected Court in a democracy. They also contribute to debates on survey methodology, by highlighting that both experimental and real-life treatments can yield similarly sized effects for the population at large when events receive broad news-coverage and experimental treatments resemble news headlines.
