Can Canadians Take a Hint? The (In)Effectiveness of Party Labels as Information Shortcuts in Canada

Merolla, Jennifer L.; Stephenson, Laura B.; Zechmeister, Elizabeth J.

doi:10.1017/s0008423908080797

Cited by 39 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Half the sample received the questions in order from easy to hard and the other half received the questions ordered from hard to easy. Our analyses of these data did not reveal any clear and consistent evidence of order effects (see Merolla, Stephenson, & Zechmeister, 2007).…”

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confidence: 58%

It's Not Easy Being Green: Minor Party Labels as Heuristic Aids

Coan

Merolla

Stephenson

et al. 2008

Political Psychology

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This paper examines if, when, and to what extent U.S. minor party labels influence individual opinions over a range of political issues. Based on data from an experimental study, we reach three general conclusions. First, as cues, party labels are more likely to influence opinions over complex issues. Second, familiarity with and trust in a party condition cue acceptance. Third, as a whole, minor party labels act as effective cues less consistently than major parties. This finding, we suggest, indicates that there exists some threshold level of familiarity and trust that minor parties must reach in the mass public in order to be effective cues. This research is valuable because it extends current work on party labels as heuristic devices and more general work on cues; our findings are additionally important given recent trends in public opinion data, which indicate that the U.S. public is becoming more accepting of minor parties as permanent features of the political system.

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confidence: 58%

It's Not Easy Being Green: Minor Party Labels as Heuristic Aids

Coan

Merolla

Stephenson

et al. 2008

Political Psychology

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“…Comparative work might be particularly important for understanding the impact of party endorsements (e.g., Brader, Tucker, & Duell, ; Coan, Merolla, Stephenson, & Zechmeister, ; Lupu, ; Merolla, Stephenson, & Zechmeister, ; Slothuus & de Vreese, ). Relevant questions include whether parties are more effective at providing cues on issues that they own (Iyengar & Valentino, ), or if parties more effectively can frame issues in terms of values that the party has a reputation for advocating (Petersen et al., )?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Parties, Motivated Reasoning, and Public Opinion Formation

Leeper

Slothuus

2014

Political Psychology

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311

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A key characteristic of democratic politics is competition between groups, first of all political parties. Yet, the unavoidably partisan nature of political conflict has had too little influence on scholarship on political psychology. Despite more than 50 years of research on political parties and citizens, we continue to lack a systematic understanding of when and how political parties influence public opinion. We suggest that alternative approaches to political parties and public opinion can be best reconciled and examined through a richer theoretical perspective grounded in motivated reasoning theory. Clearly, parties shape citizens' opinions by mobilizing, influencing, and structuring choices among political alternatives. But the answer to when and how parties influence citizens' reasoning and political opinions depends on an interaction between citizens' motivations, effort, and information generated from the political environment (particularly through competition between parties). The contribution of motivated reasoning, as we describe it, is to provide a coherent theoretical framework for understanding partisan influence on citizens' political opinions. We review recent empirical work consistent with this framework. We also point out puzzles ripe for future research and discuss how partisan motivated reasoning provides a useful point of departure for such work. Forthcoming in Advances in Political Psychology 1 (2014).The authors thank Jamie Druckman for helpful advice. They also acknowledge support from the Danish Council for Independent Research and the Aarhus University Research Foundation (AU Ideas) as part of the POLIS Research Unit. 2 IntroductionIn a democracy, power and influence is not simply a given, it is obtained through competition and conflict waged between groups. The most important groups are often political parties who fight for public opinion as a means of winning office and legitimizing their policy activity.Although parties were not initially part of the idea of democratic politics, political elites quickly realized the need for organizing collective action and formed political parties (Aldrich 1995).Since then, political parties have proven critical to elections, and today, political parties provide the key link between citizens and democratic leadership. Political parties are fundamental to democratic competition and representation. Indeed, many see democracy as "unthinkable"without political parties (Schattschneider 1942: 1).However, despite generations of political science research on political parties and citizens, we continue to lack a systematic understanding of how political parties affect democratic representation in general and public opinion in particular. Indeed, the role of political parties in public opinion formation has engaged two major, yet unresolved debates. First, do parties lead or follow public opinion? For more than 50 years, scholars have debated if citizens evaluate parties based on their policy preferences, or parties influence citizens' policy prefere...

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“…For example, Brader and Tucker (2009a) conducted party-cue experiments in Great Britain, Poland, and Hungary. And both Merolla, Stephenson, and Zechmeister (2008) and Dewan, Humphreys, and Rubenson (2009) find weakto-nil effects of party cues in Canada. Similarly, Merolla, Stephenson, and Zechmeister (2007) find only modest effects of party cues in Mexico, consistent with the recent development of party competition in that country.…”

Section: Elite Influence On Policy Preferences Outside the United Statesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Elite Influence on Public Opinion in an Informed Electorate

2011

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A n enduring concern about democracies is that citizens conform too readily to the policy views of elites in their own parties, even to the point of ignoring other information about the policies in question. This article presents two experiments that undermine this concern, at least under one important condition. People rarely possess even a modicum of information about policies; but when they do, their attitudes seem to be affected at least as much by that information as by cues from party elites. The experiments also measure the extent to which people think about policy. Contrary to many accounts, they suggest that party cues do not inhibit such thinking. This is not cause for unbridled optimism about citizens' ability to make good decisions, but it is reason to be more sanguine about their ability to use information about policy when they have it.

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Can Canadians Take a Hint? The (In)Effectiveness of Party Labels as Information Shortcuts in Canada

Cited by 39 publications

References 51 publications

It's Not Easy Being Green: Minor Party Labels as Heuristic Aids

It's Not Easy Being Green: Minor Party Labels as Heuristic Aids

Political Parties, Motivated Reasoning, and Public Opinion Formation

Elite Influence on Public Opinion in an Informed Electorate

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