Academic literature on the topic 'Rape – united states – public opinion'

During the 1980s, El Salvador was engaged in a brutal civil war; massacres, torture, and rape pervaded the countryside. This social and economic upheaval created approximately 1.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons throughout Central and North America. Gender is a critical yet understudied aspect of this mass displacement. I analyze humanitarian publications and government documents to examine the discursive gendering of Salvadoran refugees on the international stage. I argue that U.S. activists portrayed Salvadorans as feminized civilian victims in need of rescue by the paternalistic United States to change public opinion of the Salvadoran Civil War and its refugees. These gendered and infantilized constructions belie the reality that the vast majority of Salvadoran refugees to the United States were men of military age. I examine the Salvadoran refugee from a new perspective that foregrounds gender as a category of analysis.

Abstract The disproportionate incarceration of certain groups, racial minorities, and the less educated constitutes a social problem from the perspective of both policy makers and researchers. One aspect that is poorly understood is whether the public is similarly concerned about inequities in mass incarceration. Using a list experiment embedded in a framing experiment, we test for differences in attitudes towards mass incarceration by exploring three frames: race, education, and the United States in global context. We test whether social desirability bias causes people to over-state their concern about mass incarceration when directly queried. We find that mass incarceration is seen as a problem in the United States, whether the issue is framed by race, education, or as a global outlier. The list experiment reveals that public concern about mass incarceration is not quite as great as overtly-expressed opinion would suggest, and the framing experiment indicates that race-neutral frames evoke greater concern about mass incarceration than an emphasis on racial disparities.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Russian government engaged in a sophisticated strategy to influence the U.S. political system and manipulate American democracy. While most news reports have focused on the cyber-attacks aimed at Democratic Party leaders and possible contacts between Russian officials and the Trump presidential campaign, a more pernicious intervention took place. Throughout the campaign, Russian operatives created hundreds of fake personas on social media platforms and then posted thousands of advertisements and messages that sought to promote racial divisions in the United States. This was a coordinated propaganda effort. Some Facebook and Twitter posts denounced the Black Lives Matter movement and others condemned White nationalist groups. Some called for violence. To be clear, these were posts by fake personas created by Russian operatives. But their effects were real. The purpose of this strategy was to manipulate public opinion on racial issues and disrupt the political process. This Article examines Russia’s actions and considers whether they violate the international prohibitions against racial discrimination and hate speech.

The United States is the most unequal of the economically advanced nations, but despite this inequality there seems to less concern in the USA for inequality, less support for measures to reduce it, than in other economically advanced nations. This is demonstrated by the lesser percentage of GDP that supports redistributive programs attempting to redirect resources to the poor and less prosperous part of the population than we typically find in Europe. Public opinion polls also show less concern or sympathy for the poor in the United States. A recent major effort to explain this anomaly argues that the explanation is the race problem, and the identification of the poor with blacks. As against Europe, redistributive programs are not seen as programs for ‘us’ and ‘people like us’, but for those who are different and less deserving, particularly blacks, and this seems true. But one must add to this the strong tradition in the USA of successive immigrant groups providing through religious and other institutions for the welfare of their own kind, a tradition which has reduced the public support for public services for all.

A moon rock, resting on a pedestal in the American Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, became the latest trophy for the United States in its fierce space race with the Soviet Union. The exhibit was part of a broader approach to U.S. diplomacy in this period, where science and technology, or in this case a scientific specimen, were deployed to spread Western democratic values, win over international public opinion, and counter anti-American sentiment. But the moon rock’s physical resemblance to earth rocks prompted a broader discussion among Japanese audiences at the Expo about the aims of U.S. scientific and technological progress, and the practicality and applicability of American cultural norms to Japanese visions of modernity. By considering what happens when a scientific specimen travels outside of the laboratory context, outside the world of scientists, and into the world of foreign relations, this article investigates the complicated dynamics of science, material culture, and power during this critical juncture in the United States’ engagement with Japan.

Abstract It has often been stated that in the United States the left tends to be less united than the right on issues related to identity politics such as race, gender, and religion. This article presents evidence that this asymmetry in partisan alignment over identity politics is changing over time. Looking at various measures of public opinion shows that the left’s agreement on issues related to identity politics has either caught up with the right or that the gap is diminishing. The article considers various possible explanations for unity on these issues – including personality distribution, party homogeneity, and message infrastructure – and shows that partisan spillover in the context of polarization helps explains the closing of the gap in unity between the right and the left. In an era of polarization, Democratic affiliation induces warmer feeling toward stigmatized coalition partners. Groups that may have joined the Democratic party on a single group interest claim (race, gender, religion, class) will gradually move toward greater acceptance of other group interest claims supported by the party. These findings have implications for the oft-stated strategic claim that the left needs to focus on class redistribution over identity politics if the left does not want to be fractured.

Objectives: Health research indicates that physician trust in the United States has declined over the last 50 years. Paralleling this trend is a decline in social capital, with researchers finding a negative relationship between immigration-based diversity and social capital. This article examines whether physician distrust is also tied to immigration-based diversity and declining social capital. Methods: Data come from the 2012 General Social Survey, one of the gold standards of US public opinion surveys, using a national probability sample of 1080 adult US respondents. Key measures included support for reducing levels of immigration to the United States and multiple measures of physician trust. Results: The results of ordinary least squares regressions, using survey weights, indicate that support for reducing immigration is positively linked to physician distrust, bringing physician distrust into the orbit of research on diversity and declining social capital. Models controlled for age, education, income, gender, race, nativity, conservatism, unemployed status, lack of health insurance, and self-rated health. Furthermore, analyses of a subset of respondents reveal that measures of general trust and some forms of institutional trust do not explain away the association between support for immigration reduction and physician distrust, though confidence in science as an institution appears relevant. Conclusion: Consistent with diversity and social capital research, this article finds that an immigration attitude predicts physician distrust. Physician distrust may not be linked just to physician–patient interactions, the structure of the health care system, or health policies, but could also be tied to declining social trust in general.

Public opinion polls show that the majority of people in the United States support capital punishment but that is because the majority of White Americans support it. Research on the opinions of non-Whites consistently finds less support. We examine racial and ethnic differences among people who actually had to decide whether to impose the death penalty, former capital jurors, and hypothesize that lower support among non-Whites can be explained by the fact that non-Whites are more likely to distrust the criminal justice system and more likely to show empathy for the defendant in a capital case, net of defendant and victim race. Using data from the Capital Jury Project, we find support for this hypothesis in a mediating relationship between race and sentencing vote. Black and Hispanic jurors are more likely to report distrust of the capital process and higher levels of empathy for the defendant, both of which lower the probability of a death vote during the sentencing phase of the trial. We discuss the implications for research, trial strategy, and the future of capital punishment in light of these findings.

We begin with a typology of Americans’ understanding of the links between genetic inheritance and racial or ethnic groups. The typology has two dimensions: one running from genetic determinism to social construction, and the other from technology optimism to technology pessimism. Construing each dimension as a dichotomy enables four distinct political perspectives on the possibilities for reducing racial inequality in the United States through genomics. We then use a new public opinion survey to analyze Americans’ use of the typology. Survey respondents who perceive that some phenotypes are more prevalent in one group than another due to genetic factors are disproportionately technology optimists. Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to hold that set of views, as are self-identified blacks, whites, and Latinos. The article discusses the findings and speculates about alternative interpretations of the fact that partisanship and group identity do not differentiate Americans in their views of the links between genetic inheritance and racial inequality.

Since 2014, public opinion data suggests that whites have become more supportive of the Black Lives Movement. The recent murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have prompted a national debate about the need to address systemic racism in policing within the United States. Recent studies have shown how racial resentment has spilled over into a wide range of political issues that are not associated with race; however, no current research examines how racial resentment might shape whites’ views toward Black Lives Matter. Employing the racial reaction theory and the 2016 American Election Study Survey, we hypothesize and confirm that whites with high levels of racial resentment, conservative ideology, and those who indicated support for Donald Trump hold negative attitudes toward the Black Lives Matter movement. Our results also show that Asians and Hispanics hold negative attitudes toward the Black Lives Matter movement, but that whites have the highest racial resentment levels. The results raise doubts about whether the recent shift in white public opinion is sustainable. Given that racial resentment is a predictor of support for Black Lives Matter, scholars and activists should approach white support for Black Lives Matter with caution because it is likely that increased racial resentment may lead to sustained white opposition to the movement.

This cross-cultural study used the "Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Survey" (ARVS), designed by Ward (1984), to examine the attitudes of college students in New Zealand and the United States. The instrument (ARVS) is the first of its kind to test for victim blame, and the first to be limited to the assessment of attitudes toward the rape victim specifically. Subjects were 205 students from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and 508 students from the University of Arizona, Tucson. The survey responses were analyzed to determine cultural differences in attitudes, according to gender and age. Findings would suggest that the United States students were more sympathetic toward the rape victim, less likely to believe traditional rape myths, and more ready to assign male responsibility for the assault than were New Zealand students. New Zealand women appeared less aware of the implications of sexual assault than both United States men and women, and New Zealand men. New Zealand men demonstrated greater awareness than United States men. Older students in both countries tended to be more conservative in their responses than were the younger students. Although there was a significant cultural difference according to age and gender, scores were consistently low for each sample, indicating a general acceptance of traditional rape myths and a continuing tendency to assign to women the responsibility for sexual assault. Several conclusions were drawn from the data analysis. There is a significant cultural difference in attitudes toward the female victim of rape, between New Zealand and United States college students, according to age and gender. However, both cultures retain a strong belief in traditional rape myths. Responses to the ARVS seem to support the views of current theorists: that attitudes toward rape and incidence of rape are culturally predisposed by factors such as domination and aggression in men, passivity and submission in women, fear of the "feminine," and stereotypic sex roles. It is recommended that more research be undertaken on cross-cultural attitudes toward rape victims.

Using 2005 data from Gallup public opinion surveys on attitudes toward immigration policy in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom this study explores the factors that impact attitudes. Additional analysis is conducted on the United States exploring how economic, political and associative measures impact attitudes.

Recent political and cultural trends have led to an evaluation of the meaning of marriage within American society, and especially marriage as it concerns couples of the same sex. However, little research has been done to find out how attitudes toward same-sex marriage might vary according to race and ethnicity. Drawing on data from the 2004 National Politics Study, the author investigates same-sex marriage attitudes and tests hypotheses concerning the attitudes of various American race-ethnic groups. This study employs multinomial logistic regression analysis to compare attitudes of African Americans, Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. Results indicate that even when socio demographic factors such as education and gender are controlled for, ethnic groups still differ in their attitudes toward this topic. Analyses also indicate that the relationship between race/ethnicity and attitudes toward same-sex unions does not vary by gender and that foreign birth explains the relationship between Hispanic ethnicity and attitudes toward same-sex marriage.

This study was conducted in two parts. In the first part, two assumptions presented in Janet Helms' White Racial Identity (WRI) development model (1990) were tested. First, Helms theorized that one's stage of WRI development is positively related to increased cognitive complexity achievement and suggests that later stages require greater complexity. A second assumption of Helms' theory was that continued interracial contact is essential for advancement in WRI stage development. Part one of this study examined the relationship of cognitive complexity and interracial contact (both formal and informal) to WRI, and the relationship between cognitive complexity and interracial contact as they relate to WRI.Part two of this study consisted of a factor analysis of Helms' WRI measure followed by a second set of analyses examining the relationship between the new obtained factors with contact and cognitive complexity. This analysis allowed a comparison to be made between Helms' 5 WRI stages and the obtained factor solution from the factor analysis. It also allowed a comparison of the relationship between the stages and cognitive complexity and contact and the obtained factor solution and these same variables.Three hundred and sixty eight White undergraduates completed Helms' White Racial Identity Attitude Scale, a 4 x 6 Repertory Grid, measuring cognitive complexity in social settings, and an interracial contact measure, including a measure of both formal and informal types of contact. Results of part one of the analyses indicated that neither cognitive complexity nor cognitive complexity x contact were significantly related to WRI scores. However, contact was significantly related to WRI scores. WRI stage two was positively related and WRI stage four was negatively related to scores on formal contact. Stage 4 was negatively related and stages 2 and 3 were positively related to scores on informal contact.The results of part two indicated again that neither cognitive complexity nor cognitive complexity x contact were significantly related to the obtained WRI factors. However, contact once again was significant. The factor analysis produced a 5 factor solution that while similar in theme and number to the 5 stages, nonetheless indicated a different relationship with contact scores than the stages did. Factor 3 (representing stage 4) was positively related and factor 4 (representing stages 2 and 3) was negatively related to formal contact scores. However, factor 3 (representing stage 4) was positively related and factor 4 (representing stages 2 and 3) were negatively related to scores on informal contact. There were discrepancies across the two parts of the study as to the stages and direction of the relationships between interracial contact (formal and informal) and WRI scores. Some of these results were in opposite directions than either the theory or study expected.These discrepancies are dealt with in chapter 5.
Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Chinese female immigrants were active cultural contributors and participants in nineteenth century America, yet Americans often simplified their roles into crude stereotypes and media symbols. The early western accounts concerning females in China created the fundamental images that were the basis of the later stereotypes of women immigrants. The fact that a majority of the period's Chinese female immigrants became prostitutes fueled anti-Chinese feelings. This thesis investigates the general existence of Chinese prostitutes in nineteenth century America and how they were portrayed in the media. American attitudes toward white women and their images of Chinese women created the stereotype of all Chinese female immigrants as immoral. Thus, they became unconscious pawns of nineteenth century American nativist forces wanting to limit and prevent Chinese immigration based on prejudicial and racist attitudes.

According to conventional wisdom winning hearts and minds is one of the most important goals for defeating terrorism. However, despite repeated claims about U.S. efforts to build popular support as part of the war on terror during the first seven years after 9/11, a steady stream of polls and surveys delivered troubling news. Using a counterinsurgency and social movement informed approach, I explain why the United States performed poorly in the race for Muslim hearts and minds, with a specific focus on problems inherent in the social construction of terrorism, the use of an enemy-centric model while overestimating agency, and the counterproductive effect of policy choices on framing processes. Popular support plays wide-ranging roles in counterterrorism, including: influencing recruitment, fundraising, operational support, and the flow of intelligence; providing credibility and legitimacy; and, sanctifying or marginalizing violence. Recognizing this the U.S. emphasized public diplomacy, foreign aid, positive military-civilian interactions, democracy promotion, and other efforts targeting populations in the Muslim world. To explain the problems these efforts had, this thesis argues that how Americans think and talk about terrorism, reflected especially in the rhetoric and strategic narrative of the Bush administration, evolved after 9/11 to reinforce normative and enemy-centric biases undermining both understanding of the underlying conflicts and resulting efforts. U.S. policy advocates further misjudged American agency, especially in terms of overemphasizing U.S. centrality, failing to recognize the importance of real grievances, and overestimating American ability to implement its own policies or control the policies of local governments. Finally, the failure to acknowledge the role of U.S. policies counterproductively impacted contested framing processes influencing the evolution of mobilization. The resulting rhetoric and actions reinforced existing anti- American views, contributed to the perception that the war on terror is really a war on Islam, and undermined natural counter narratives.

This thesis begins with a review of the elite debate over free trade with the United States. It then uses a three-fold theoretical framework to formulate predictions of how mass opinion should line up. It then analyzes public opinion data on free trade through the use of crosstabulations. Using a theory of changing exposure to international trade upon domestic political cleavages formulated by Ronald Rogowski, it predicts that labour will oppose free trade because it is a scarce factor of production, and capital will support it because it is an abundant factor of production. It next uses work by, among others, W.A. Mackintosh to predict that respondents in the "industrial heartland" regions of Canada--Quebec and Ontario--will oppose free trade because it threatens to remove the protective tariff that rewards import replacement industries concentrated in those two regions. In contrast, residents of the "resource extracting and processing hinterland" regions—British Columbia, the Prairies and the Atlantic—will, on balance, support free trade because it promises to improve their export performance. The thesis then predicts that women and lower income Canadians will oppose free trade. Women because many of the services that they consume—health and day care, for example—will become more difficult to obtain under a free trade regime. Women will also oppose free trade because it may be threaten the service sector jobs that many women now hold. Lower income Canadians should oppose free trade because of the possible deleterious effects greater reliance on the market to allocate social services could have on poorer Canadians. Finally, the thesis predicts that better-educated Canadians will oppose free trade because it threatens one of the "core-values" of Canadian society: independence from the United States. Data analysis reveals, however, that opinion is remarkably balanced. For example, the difference between union and non-union respondents is only five percent. Regionally, the largest differences in support for free trade is between British Columbia and Ontario, but it amounts to little more than a twenty percent difference. Women are slightly more likely to oppose free trade than men; income appears to play little role in the formation of opinion on free trade. Last, differences in opinion between articulate and less well educated Canadians also appears to be insignificant.
Arts, Faculty of
Political Science, Department of
Graduate

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2007.
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Since their inception, public schools had been faced with inert problems. The purpose of this study was to discover what the American public believed were the biggest problems facing public schools from 1990-1999 and what education experts believed could be done to eliminate or lessen the problems. Data to discover what the public believed were the biggest problems facing public schools were derived from the Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Polls of the Public's Attitudes Toward Public Schools (Poll) for that 10-year period. Possible solutions to those problems were examined and discussed based on the latest literature on identified topics.Based on the Poll data the public identified 46 problems facing public schools for this 10-year period. A group of 35 individuals sorted the 46 public school problems into categories they believed were similar with each other and these groupings were factor analyzed to determine coherent problem categories.The results of the factor analysis provided a list 16 problem areas for the 10-year (1990-1999) period as being the most prevalent. Potential solutions to these 16 problems were offered from four different areas: the schools, government, community and individual homes of the students. Some solutions to a particular problem were also mentioned as potential solutions to many of the other problems facing public schools.Suggestions for further study include replicating this study at the local level, analyzing each problem more thoroughly, and conducting further study of the factor analysis.
Department of Educational Leadership

Abstract On March 26, 1999, the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) opened the nation’s first deep geological disposal system (repository) for long-lived radioactive wastes/materials (LLRMs) at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site, New Mexico, United States of America (USA). The opening of WIPP embodies gradually achieved acceptance, both local and global, on scientific, institutional, regulatory, political, and public levels. In the opinion of the author, five significant determinants for the successful siting, certification, and acceptance of WIPP, were the existence of: • A willing and supportive host community; • A strong, independent regulator; • A regulatory framework widely perceived to (over)protect public health and the environment; • A structurally simple, old, stable, host-rock with excellent radionuclide containment and isolation characteristics; and • An open siting, site characterization, repository development, certification and recertification process with regularly scheduled opportunities for information exchanges with affected and interested parties, including a) prompt responses to non-DOE concerns and b) transparency/traceability of external-input into, and the logic behind, the DOE’s decision-making process. The nation’s and the world’s next deep geological repository for LLRMs is currently scheduled to open in 2010. As follows, in addition to providing a national solution to safe disposal of LLRMs, the opening and continued safe operation of WIPP provides an international role model that effectively dispels the global myth that LLRMs cannot be safely disposed in a deep geological repository.

The spread of soft power by the great states and possible consequences for the Republic of Serbia To successfully realize their own economic interests in a distant country that Serbia certainly is in relation to China, to protect the established opinion about the lasting brotherly and protective relationship perceived by the citizens of Serbia in relation to Russia, or to convince the new generations in Serbia that NATO bombing was not intended for the people in Serbia but for Milosevic's regime, and that it is time to look ahead and develop a friendly relationship and partnership with the United States, following the example of the time of Mihajlo Pupin, are just some of the goals of spreading the soft power of the great powers in Serbia. The main goals are certainly political influence on decision makers through the creation of support in targeted groups of citizens that would serve as a reservoir of support and legitimacy of influence. The authors of this paper will try to conclude how, in what way, and with what consequences the USA, Russia, and China spread soft power in Serbia through the use of various public opinion polls, interpretation of certain actions of great powers, as well as analysis of variations of their often invisible, official presence. The paper, in a transparent and impartial way, will draw conclusions, and it will propose measures to control the spread of the great powers’ influence through their soft power, so that Serbia can continue to pursue its own, independent policy, and make important economic and political decisions, guided by its own interests. The authors will pay special attention to the influence by which, through the soft power of great states, they can influence the economic prosperity of Serbia, security, and politics in the years ahead. Keywords: soft power, security, politics, economy, interest

With potential energy shortages and increasing electricity demand, the nuclear energy option is being reconsidered in the United States. Public opinion will have a considerable voice in policy decisions that will “roadmap” the future of nuclear energy in this country. This report is an extension of the last author’s work on the “safety culture” associated with three engineered systems (automobiles, commercial airplanes, and nuclear power plants) in Japan and the United States. Safety culture, in brief is defined as a specifically developed culture based on societal and individual interpretations of the balance of real, perceived, and imagined risks versus the benefits drawn from utilizing a given engineered systems. The method of analysis is a modified scale analysis, with two fundamental eigenmetrics, time- (τ) and number-scales (N) that describe both engineered systems and human factors. The scale analysis approach is appropriate because human perception of risk, perception of benefit and level of (technological) acceptance are inherently subjective, therefore “fuzzy” and rarely quantifiable in exact magnitude. Perception of risk, expressed in terms of the psychometric factors “dread risk” and “unknown risk”, contains both time- and number-scale elements. Various engineering system accidents with fatalities, reported by mass media are characterized by τ and N, and are presented in this work using the scale analysis method. We contend that level of acceptance infers a perception of benefit at least two orders larger magnitude than perception of risk. The “amplification” influence of mass media is also deduced as being 100- to 1000-fold the actual number of fatalities/serious injuries in a nuclear-related accident.

Country image is an important aspect in international relations (tourism, products and services, trade etc.) thus a lot of emphasis is put on it from a marketing communication perspective, in order to influence the individuals in their view. According to the aims of the sender, the messages can have a positive or negative effect on how we perceive certain regions or entire countries and their leaders or specific policies. Nye (2004) describes this projection as “soft power” when exporting ideas towards a desired outcome, Herman & Chomsky (2008) stresses that premise of discourse is influenced by topic setting, thus interpretation of events can be changed, which are in line with the work and theories of Bernays, who among other stressed that expected form of behaviour should be impacted, with the assistance of psychological techniques and propaganda (public mass persuasions). Thus conditioning the public for certain narratives in accordance to individual or political objectives can be considered as vide spread. This involves fake news and creative new ways of distributing desired narratives through online and social media marketing, given its proliferation, accessibility and low entry barriers (from a communication perspective) makes it an ideal platform for information (message) dissemination. Presently in 2024 there are more localised and international conflicts, where belligerents aim to persuade the public (voters) of their own and of other countries in their favour, thus of their moral superiority over their adversaries. This can in turn create political support for certain desired policies. In the article, according to my modest means, I will explore these techniques and theories, and show through the conflict in Ukraine, how different groups in Hungary (according to demographic markers, marketing communication channel trust, and political party preference) have varying opinions of those countries that are in the focus, namely Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and the European Union. During my research a primary questionnaire study has been performed and preliminary data analysis suggests a strong correlation of communication channel trust and political party preference which in turn polarises public opinion about these states, all in a trend like fashion. Thus, where the individual gathers information and news; and what kind of political affiliation the same person has, will have an effect on the country image, meaning that different narratives can be identified and their effects shown in practice.

Most of the offshore wind developments to date, globally, have been bottom-fixed foundations located in shallow waters (<30m water depth) and in close proximity to shore. However, as technology improves and as space for near-shore sites decreases, offshore wind development is projected to trend towards deeper waters. Floating wind is thus expected to become one of the leading renewable energy sources over the next decade or so. Notably, the success of pilot projects in Europe has confirmed the viability of floating wind technology, drawing in additional developers to the market. In the United States, there is a significant potential for floating offshore wind off the coast of California, Maine, and Hawaii. While the majority of current floating wind activity is concentrated in <200m water depth, further technology improvement coupled with experience from floating oil and gas developments will lead to even deeper floating wind projects in the future. One key aspect for floating wind technology is the floater foundation that will support the wind turbine assembly. The entire unit will be moored to the seabed and be subject to challenging environment conditions throughout its service life (akin to a floating oil and gas production facility). There are several floating wind concepts currently in the market - a handful are field-proven at pilot project scale but the majority are still in development phase, each with their own unique offering. The purpose of this paper is to perform an independent qualitative assessment of the current floating wind concepts. The assessment will focus on aspects related to technology readiness, design complexity and scalability, material selection, constructability, installation, operations, and maintenance. This paper provides the offshore wind industry with an unbiased opinion on available designs as well as an insight into perceived challenges for future developments. As a disclaimer, it is noted that Wood has utilized public-domain information for this study and has no preference towards any existing floating wind concepts or designs.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.

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