Question

4. Suppose you want to model a set of interaction relationships between Catholicism, religious attendance, and abortion beliefs. You think that the positive effect of religious attendance on antiabortion attitudes is significantly stronger for Catholics than non-Catholics. To construct the interaction model, you will build on the base effects of the model shown in Exercise 3: y = a + b1(Catholic) + b2(high attendance), where “Catholic” is a Catholic/non-Catholic dummy (Catholics are coded 1, nonCatholics coded 0) and “high attendance” is a high attendance/low attendance dummy (frequent attenders are coded 1, infrequent attenders are coded 0). Before you specify the model, you will need to compute an interaction variable

. A. The interaction variable is computed by multiplying __________ times _________. Which of the following groups of respondents will have a value of 0 on the interaction variable: Catholic low-attenders, non-Catholic low-attenders, Catholic high-attenders, non-Catholic highattenders? Write down all answers that apply.

B. Which of the following groups of respondents will have a value of 1 on the interaction variable: Catholic low-attenders, non-Catholic low-attenders, Catholic high-attenders, nonCatholic high-attenders? Write down all answers that apply.

C. Write out the interaction model to be estimated.

D. Focus on the cofficient that estimates the interaction effect. If your idea is correct – that the positive effect of religious attendance on anti-abortion attitudes is significantly stronger for Catholics than non-Catholics – then would you expect the sign on the coefficient to be negative, positive, or close to 0? Explain your answer.

Answer 1