We will collect 1500 participants drawn in a stratified way with unequal probabilities of selection, so that the people who complete each survey will resemble the nation's adult population (according to the most recently available Current Population Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau) in terms of gender, age, education, ethnicity (Hispanic vs. not), race (allowing each respondent to select more than one race), region, and income. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the plausible or implausbile decline groups. In the implausible decline, participants read and evaluated (on a 1-7 disagree to agree Likert scale) a series of statements about social decline that were so extreme that a reasonable person would be forced to reject them (e.g. “All aspects of the world today are more dnagerous that when I was a child”). Implausible decline items: “Nowadays all people are less trustworthy than the average person was when I was a child.” “Nowadays all artists are less responsible than the average artist was when I was a child.” “These days all people are less moral than the average person was when I was a child.” “These days the contents of all movies, TV programs, and music lyrics are more morally corrupting than typical movies, TV programs, and music lyrics were when I was a child.” “Nowadays all teenagers are more spoiled than the average teenager was when I was a child.” “Nowadays all people are more selfish than the average person was when I was a child.” “All aspects of the world today are more dangerous than when I was a child.” In the plausible decline condition, participants read and evaluated statements about social decline paralleling those in the implausible decline condition, but in this case were phrased so mildly that a reasonable person would be forced to accept them (e.g. “Some aspects of the world today are more dangerous than when I was a child”). Plausible decline items: “Nowadays some people are less trustworthy than the average person was when I was a child.” “Nowadays some artists are less responsible than the average artist was when I was a child.” “These days some people are less moral than the average person was when I was a child.” “These days the contents of some movies, TV programs, and music lyrics are more morally corrupting than typical movies, TV programs, and music lyrics were when I was a child.” “Nowadays some teenagers are more spoiled than the average teenager was when I was a child.” “Nowadays some people are more selfish than the average person was when I was a child.” “Some aspects of the world today are more dangerous than when I was a child.” After recording their agreement/disagreement, participants rated their own political identification on a scale ranging from very conservative (-3) to very liberal (+3), and they also rated their likelihood of voting for a conservative versus a liberal candidate on a scale ranging from very likely to vote conservative (-3) to very likely to vote liberal (+3).