Balmas 2018 Flashcards
What is public diplomacy?
Government-sponsored communication with foreign publics to build positive sentiment, influence policy views, or spread strategic narratives.
What are some common public diplomacy tools?
High-level visits, cultural events, state media, educational exchanges, and symbolic aid.
Why is credibility important in public diplomacy?
Foreign publics must believe the sender has their best interests at heart; suspicion of self-interest can backfire.
What is the core idea of Balmas (2018)?
People project their perception of a foreign leader onto the country and its citizens—a process called personal projection.
Social identity theory
people simplify and stereotype outgroups, often judging them based on an exemplar like a leader.
What is political personalization?
A media trend that emphasizes individual political leaders over institutions or systems.
What is the “Obama Effect”?
A global rise in favorable opinion toward the U.S. after Obama’s election, attributed to his personal popularity.
What kind of study did Balmas (2018) run?
Two survey experiments—one in Israel and one in the U.S.
What were the treatments in Study 1?
Participants read a fake article about a leader (Merkel or Netanyahu) or a fictional citizen, framed either positively or negatively.
What were the dependent variables?
Evaluation of the typical citizen
Emotional perceptions (sentiment & respect) toward the country
What was the control in Study 1?
A fictional CEO from the same country, used to test whether the effect was specific to national leaders.
What did the study find about leader portrayals?
Positive portrayals increased favorable views of a country’s citizens and emotional respect toward the country. Negative portrayals did the opposite.
Did the fictional citizen treatment have the same effect?
No—the pattern only held for national leaders, not for non-political figures.
What does this suggest?
Leaders are viewed as national exemplars and uniquely shape perceptions of their countries.
Why did Balmas run a second study?
To improve internal validity with additional controls: a no-news control and a fictitious leader from a fake country.
What did the fictional leader experiment test?
Whether people still project leader traits when they have no prior knowledge of the country (they did).
What does this say about the generalizability of personal projection?
It operates even without real-world context—people still apply leader traits to the country.
How does media influence public diplomacy success?
It mediates communication between states and foreign publics, shaping narratives and framing motives.
Why might media reduce the effectiveness of public diplomacy?
It’s biased toward negative or sensational content, and consumers often seek information that confirms preexisting views.
