Partisan Ambivalence and Electoral Decision Making

Abstract

<jats:p>American politics today is driven largely by deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans. That said, there are many people who view the opposition in an overwhelmingly negative light – but who simultaneously possess a mix of positive and negative feelings toward their own party. This paper is a response to prior research (e.g., Lavine, Johnson, and Steenbergen 2012) indicating that such ambivalence increases the probability that voters will engage in "deliberative" (or "effortful") rather than "heuristic" thinking when responding to the choices presented to them in political campaigns. We extend the logic of this argument to a hypothetical race for Congress, using data from a survey experiment to determine whether a high degree of ambivalence toward one's party makes voters more responsive to a negative attack against the candidate of that party. In fact, we find little evidence that partisan ambivalence promotes a deliberative response to negative campaign ads.</jats:p>

Question wording and attitudinal ambivalence: COVID, the economy, and Americans' response to a real‐life trolley problem

“…Prior studies have examined ambivalence across a broad range of issues, including abortion (Alvarez and Brehm 1995;Craig, Kane, and Martinez 2002), gay rights (Craig et al 2005), and social welfare (Feldman and Zaller 1992;Gainous 2008). There also is a growing body of research focusing on ambivalence toward the political parties (Lavine, Johnston, and Steenbergen 2012;Craig, Cossette, and Martinez 2020).…”

“…2005), and social welfare (Feldman and Zaller 1992; Gainous 2008). There also is a growing body of research focusing on ambivalence toward the political parties (Lavine, Johnston, and Steenbergen 2012; Craig, Cossette, and Martinez 2020).…”

“…When inconsistency is measured taking these respondents into account (116 were mixed on "social distancing" but not on "saving lives," 214 were mixed on "saving lives" but not "social distancing"), the substantive results reported above were largely unchanged. 20 See Craig, Cossette, and Martinez (2020). Respondents were asked, "Has the Democratic Party-because of its policies, its leaders, or something else the party has done-ever made you feel afraid?"…”