What's in a Cue? How Citizens Infer Policy Information from Party Cues

• In Event: Improving Decision-Making

Abstract

When citizens learn the policy position of their party they appear to ignore information about the content of policy. This has led to the view, widespread among public opinion scholars, that party cues are in contrast to policy information. In this paper, we provide theory and evidence that challenge this understanding in one important way: A party cue could--in and of itself--lead citizens to draw relevant inferences about the content and immediate consequences of policy. Across several experiments conducted in both the United States and Denmark on different policy areas with different party sponsors, we show that citizens "see" substantially different policies depending on the policy reputation of the sponsoring party. When citizens follow the policy position of their party this behavior could be grounded in much more policy-relevant considerations than revealed in existing research, suggesting a less bleak interpretation of party cue effects.

Authors

• Rune Slothuus, Aarhus University

• Rasmus Skytte, Aarhus University

• Martin Bisgaard, Aarhus University