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Polarizing Cues

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  • Stephen P. Nicholson

Abstract

People categorize themselves and others, creating ingroup and outgroup distinctions. In American politics, parties constitute the in‐ and outgroups, and party leaders hold sway in articulating party positions. A party leader's endorsement of a policy can be persuasive, inducing co‐partisans to take the same position. In contrast, a party leader's endorsement may polarize opinion, inducing out‐party identifiers to take a contrary position. Using survey experiments from the 2008 presidential election, I examine whether in‐ and out‐party candidate cues—John McCain and Barack Obama—affected partisan opinion. The results indicate that in‐party leader cues do not persuade but that out‐party leader cues polarize. This finding holds in an experiment featuring President Bush in which his endorsement did not persuade Republicans but it polarized Democrats. Lastly, I compare the effect of party leader cues to party label cues. The results suggest that politicians, not parties, function as polarizing cues.

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  • Stephen P. Nicholson, 2012. "Polarizing Cues," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 52-66, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:56:y:2012:i:1:p:52-66
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00541.x
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