APHORISTIC DEMOCRACY: APHORISMS AND SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC NORMS

While socialization is important to the formation of political opinions, scholars know little aboutthe specific information that is passed along to children during this process. I argue that oneway to measure this is through tapping a subset of cultural information units, or “memes,” thatconvey life lessons: aphorisms. Using original survey data, I test whether measuring orientationstoward aphorisms helps explain the variation in abstract political attitudes. I show that aphorismsare influential in structuring political cognition and help explain support for or opposition to thepreservation of democratic norms. Additionally, aphorisms’ effects are conditional on the extent towhich an aphorism taps an underlying worldview that is politically relevant. Lastly, I show that evenwhen controlling for one’s worldviews, three out of six aphorisms tested exhibit consistently strongeffects on democratic attitudes: “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” “Children ought to be seen andnot heard,” and “It is better to be feared than loved.” In sum, this paper demonstrates the utility ofaphorisms as a measurement tool in public opinion and contributes to the socialization literatureby examining how the latent imprint of non-political socialization, measured through aphorisms,structures public opinion. I conclude by hypothesizing about the effectiveness of aphoristic languagein elite rhetoric and exploring other potential areas of future research.