The Political Consequences of Ambivalence: The Case of Democratic Reform in Hong Kong

Recent research has shown that attitudinal ambivalence has importantimplications on political attitudes and behavior. The conceptholds one of the keys to understanding complicated and seeminglycontradictory opinions of the public. This article examinesambivalence in public opinion regarding democratic reform inHong Kong. Analysis of a representative survey (N = 600) showsthat common citizens indeed have a significant degree of ambivalencetoward the government's political reform bill proposed in 2005.Regarding consequences, objective ambivalence is shown to havegreater predictive power than subjective ambivalence. The formerrelates negatively to attitude extremity and weakens the attitude–behaviorlinkage. However, contrary to the usual finding in the literature,objective ambivalence also relates positively to protest participationintention. The theoretical and social implications of the findingsare discussed. Received for publication June 29, 2007. Accepted for publication October 8, 2008.