Anti-Americanism: an exploration of a contested concept in Western Europe
Despite its popular currency and salience, anti-Americanism is understudied and misunderstood by social scientists. Even within academia, studies of anti-Americanism are often polemic, and logically or methodologically flawed. Focusing on Western Europe, we argue that anti-Americanism is a public opinion phenomenon, and present a definition of anti-Americanism based on social psychology, and demonstrate how cognitive psychological processes shape anti-Americanism. We outline several predictors of anti-Americanism, processes of internal cognition, responses to international political events, patterns of interpersonal communication and information diffusion, and the contextual role of ideology. We also observe the important implications European anti-Americanism has for support international institutions, and demonstrate that anti-Americanism leads to less overall support for major global actors such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union. We also argue that, because of the invasion of Iraq and the events leading up to the invasion, anti-Americanism in Europe has reached a new high point.
anti-americanism, public opinion, western europe, united states
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