Does Information on Human Rights Violation and National Interests affect attitudes toward Biopolitical Bills: Experimental Evidence from Russia
Аннотация
Russian lawmakers increasingly pursue biopolitical bills, justified as protecting state interests yet infringing human rights. Using a 3×3 factorial survey experiment on 523 Russian respon dents, this study examines how brief information on national interests or human-rights viola tions affects the issue salience, general attitude, and support elicited by such bills. Information emphasizing national interests has a small but significant effect on attitudes and support; in formation on human-rights violations matters only once a moderator (heterogeneous treatment effect) is included. The key findings of this paper are as follows: 1) the mere presence of national interests might serve as a reminder of official state positions, and thus act as a piece of “hard” propaganda and induce social desirability bias; 2) brief information on human-rights violations serves as a reminder only for that cohort of respondents who already exhibited strong preferences for individual human rights over state interests. Descriptive evidence on attitudes toward biopolitical bills suggests a high degree of heterogeneity, and therefore no universal attitude toward biopolitical bills can be established. At the same time, the effects on attitude do not translate into action or strong support for either type of bill, nor do they induce any change in perceived salience.
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