Scholars of public opinion and foreign policy recognize that the general public is poorly informed about international affairs, but they disagree about whether and how this fact affects the policies that it will support. Some argue that the lack of information has little effect, at least in the aggregate, while others hold that political information mediates attention to elite cues. We investigate a third line of argument in which political information has a direct effect on the policy options individuals support. Low levels of political information give rise to a pattern of complacency toward likely international threats in times of relative peace and a contrasting tendency to support violent and aggressive policy options during war or acute crises. We test this argument using survey data from two relevant historical settings: the American entry into World War II and the response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

中文翻译：

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和平太和平主义者，战争太好战：政治信息和外交政策主张

舆论和外交政策学者承认，公众对国际事务知之甚少，但他们不同意这个事实是否以及如何影响其将支持的政策。一些人认为，信息的缺乏至少在总体上没有什么影响，而另一些人则认为，政治信息会调动人们对精英线索的关注。我们调查了第三条论点，其中政治信息对个人支持的政策选择具有直接影响。相对较低的政治信息水平导致人们对相对和平时期可能出现的国际威胁感到自满，并且在战争或严重危机期间倾向于采取暴力和侵略性的政策选择。我们使用来自两个相关历史设置的调查数据来检验此参数：