New paper led by @makitotakei.bsky.social!
We found experimental evidence for one of the key theoretical tenets of audience cost theory - those in the challenged country understand that the challenger’s leader would face a punishment for backing down.
Hirotaka Imada
@makitotakei.bsky.social, Chanki Moon & @hirotakaimada.bsky.social test if target publics see audience costs. US survey (N=1,404): people infer domestic punishment for backing down; credibility is similar for democracies and autocracies.
Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Audience cost theory suggests that as a country increases its audience costs, it can send a credible threat to an opponent and prevail in an international crisi...
