Information and Learning in a Congressional District: A Social Experiment

Directing Electoral Appeals Away From the Center: Issue Position and Issue Salience

“…Past research does suggest that voters will distort candidate positions and proximity to candidates to reduce cognitive dissonance (Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee 1954;Markus and Converse 1979;Page and Jones 1979;Kenney and Rice 1988;Larson 1990;Bernstein 1992). However, there is no reason to expect that voters at one end of an issue spectrum should do that consistently more than those at the other end.…”

Determinants of Differences in Feelings Toward Senators Representing the Same State

“…However, respondents who are directly asked why they like their representatives, very rarely mention ideological or policy congruence in response (Parker and Davidson 1979;Bernstein 1989;Fiorina 1989;Parker 1989). Furthermore, experimental research shows that constituents filter policy information in such a way as to increase favorable evaluations of elected representatives when they have evidence of policy agreement, but not to increase unfavorable evaluations when they have evidence of disagreement (Larson 1990). Such filtering mitigates the extent to which affection is reduced by ideological distance.…”

“…Those similarities in feelings are likely to be reinforced by the tendency of senators to imitate successful home-style tactics used by the other senator representing the state. 'o Other Differences between Senators Among the reasons people list for liking or disliking representatives are evaluations of character (e.g., honesty, adherence to principle, scandalous behavior) and presentation (e.g., speaking ability, looks, age, illness) (Parker and Davidson 1979;Bernstein 1989;Fiorina 1989;Parker 1989;Larson 1990). Much of the variation in difference in feeling might well be accounted for by differences in evaluation of character or presentation, rather than by differences in senators' ideology or attentiveness to constituents.…”

“…Senators may have sufficient freedom to support different ideological positions even if they have similar or largely overlapping support coalitions. Supporting that possibility is extensive research into incumbency advantage that suggests that representatives can strengthen feelings of trust and warmth regardless of ideological or party congruence (see, e.g., Fenno 1978;Payne 1980aPayne , 1980bJohannes 1984;Fiorina, 1989;Parker 1989;Parker and Parker 1989;Larson 1990). The trust and warmth they build on a non-ideological basis then gives them freedom to deviate from constituents' ideological preferences while retaining the support of those constituents.…”

“…Instead, people may adjust their perceptions of ideological distance to reflect their likes and dislikes. There is evidence dating back more than twenty-five years that people distort the positions taken by candidates whom they like, so that the perceived candidate positions match more closely those held by themselves (see, e.g., Berelson, Lazarfeld, and McPhee 1954;Markus and Converse 1979;Page and Jones 1979; Kenney and Rice 1988;Larson 1990). People may distort the positions held by ideologically distant senators to reduce the cognitive dissonance that would otherwise stem from supporting both of them.…”