Image, issues, and ideology: The processing of information about political candidates.

Abstract

Ss watched a videotaped nonpolitical speech by a male political candidate that conveyed either a favorable or an unfavorable image. Then they heard an excerpt of a radio program in which the candidate was described as holding either conservative positions or liberal positions on a series of specific issues. The impact of the candidate's speech on evaluations of him decreased over time. However, Ss used the speech as a basis for judgment only when the candidate's issue stands had unfavorable implications. When Ss learned the candidate's issue stands 24 hr after they heard the speech, they based their evaluations on their personal agreement with these stands. When Ss learned the candidate's issue positions immediately after the speech, however, they based their evaluations on the ideological implications of the issue stands instead.

Procedural influences on judgments and behavioral decisions

“…When it was conveyed 24 h earlier, however, participants formed an initial concept of the product on the basis of its country of origin as a whole, and this concept affected the interpretation of the attribute information they encountered later. Thus, categorical information had greater effects on the interpretation of later information when it was presented separately from others, in contrast to the implications of Wyer et al's (1991) findings. Although numerous factors might account for this difference (e.g., the modality of the category-based information and the vividness of the concept it elicited), the difference is nonetheless worth noting.…”

“…However, a study of political decision-making by Wyer et al (1991) provides more direct evidence that the comprehension of a picture induces a disposition to engage in global processing that, once activated, affects the way that later information is comprehended and the decisions that were based upon it. Participants first viewed a videotaped nonpolitical speech by a political candidate.…”

Issue Benefactors or Issue Victims? Ballot Initiative Influence on the Vote for California Governor, 1982-1998

“…These data contradict earlier arguments (see Magleby 1988;Wyer et al 1991) that citizens are less apt to vote for ballot measures than candidates because issue voting is generally more difficult and time-consuming than candidate voting. Are California voters therefore exceptionally civic-minded and uniquely motivated to seek out issue information?…”

The impact of pictures on narrative- and list-based impression formation: A process interference model

“…For example, women are likely to give relatively less weight to a man's personality trait descriptions when deciding whether they would like to date him if the descriptions are accompanied by a physically unattractive photograph rather than an attractive one (Lampel & Anderson, 1968). Also, viewing a politician's nonpolitical speech can lead individuals to apply more global (i.e., ideology-based) criteria in evaluating his issue positions than they otherwise would, and thus can aVect their evaluations of him (Wyer et al, 1991). Despite this evidence, research and theory on person perception and impression formation has typically considered the impact of each type of information in isolation (for reviews, see Carlston & Smith, 1996;DePaulo & Friedman, 1998;.…”