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Moral Politicking

Public Attitudes toward Gay Marriage in an Election Context

University of Wisconsin-Madison, abbecker2{at}wisc.edu

Dietram A. Scheufele

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Using data from a nationally representative random-digit-dial survey collected before the 2004 presidential election (N = 781), this study examines the ways in which predispositions, media use, and political inputs (political knowledge; political tolerance) influence public support for gay marriage. Our analyses suggest that attitudes toward gay marriage were largely shaped by ideological orientations and religious predispositions during the course of the 2004 election cycle. We show that ideological predispositions acted as perceptual filters by moderating the influence that attention to television campaign coverage has on shaping support for gay marriage. Our findings also suggest that ideological and religious predispositions attenuated the effects of political knowledge and judgments of political tolerance on influencing support for gay marriage. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Key Words: gay marriage • religiosity • ideology • perceptual filters • political tolerance

The International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 14, No. 2, 186-211 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1940161208330905


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