Anti-American Attitudes among Youn Europeans: The Mitigating Influence of Soft Power

摘要

The recent rise in anti-American attitudes among European publics is a threat to American diplomatic efforts. Poll data indicate that young Europeans hold increasingly negative opinions about the United States. This study seeks to understand the influences that contribute to perceptions about the United States among young people in Europe using a phenomenological approach, going beyond opinion poll data. Open-ended long interviews with university students from Europe found they believe their political and cultural values are different from American values. They believe the United States imposes its culture and foreign policies on other countries and acts unilaterally in its own self-interest. However, admiration of American popular culture and positive beliefs about the United States that were inculcated at an early age, primarily from television and movies, served to temper attitudes that grew more negative with age. The study provides benchmark data collected at a pivotal time in history, a few months before the 2008 U.S. presidential election, that can provide indicators of whether increasingly negative attitudes is a temporary phenomenon that will change with new policy and a new U.S. president, or whether these attitudes represent a deeper, cultural values gap likely to endure.