Rationalization and Derivation Processes in Survey Studies of Political Candidate Evaluation

Rahn, Wendy M.; Krosnick, Jon A.; Breuning, Marijke

doi:10.2307/2111598

Cited by 150 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…But if Lodge and his colleagues are correct, recollections called forth do not necessarily represent the factors that actually influenced the vote. Instead, they are either rationalizations or justifications for the decision already made (Rahn, Krosnick, and Breuning 1994b). A new approach is needed to capture the necessary data for analysis of candidate evaluation and choice.…”

Section: Process Tracingmentioning

confidence: 99%

You Must Remember This: A Test of the On-Line Model of Voting

Redlawsk¹

2001

The Journal of Politics

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Milton Lodge and his colleagues at Stony Brook have argued that voters process campaign information on‐line, summarizing their affect toward candidates as campaign information is encountered. Consequently, recall of campaign information and vote choice are believed by Lodge to be a weak predictor of actual vote decision, which is determined almost solely by the on‐line tally. The claims made by the on‐line model have not been tested in a dynamic election context, however, in which two or more candidates compete for the vote. This study uses a new experimental methodology that more accurately depicts the realities of a campaign environment to assess the relative importance of memory and the on‐line tally in predicting both the direction and accuracy of the vote choice. Findings do not support the pure Stony Brook on‐line model, as they show that in all cases voter memory plays an important role in decision making and suggest that a mixed decision‐making model is more appropriate.

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Section: Process Tracingmentioning

confidence: 99%

You Must Remember This: A Test of the On-Line Model of Voting

Redlawsk¹

2001

The Journal of Politics

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“…One concern with Calvert and Ferejohn's 1983 approach is that some reported likes and dislikes are rationalizations of vote choice (Rahn, Krosnick and Breuning, 1994). As a result, reported likes and dislikes are likely related to omitted variables resulting from imperfect 6 Related recent literature uses close election regression discontinuity designs to look at how the party of incumbent elected officials affects voting in other races.…”

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confidence: 99%

Exploiting Friends-and-Neighbors to Estimate Coattail Effects

Meredith

2013

Am Polit Sci Rev

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Federalist democracies often hold concurrent elections for multiple offices. A potential consequence of simultaneously voting for multiple offices that vary with respect to scope and scale is that the personal appeal of candidates in a high-profile race may affect electoral outcomes in less salient races. In this paper I estimate the magnitude of such coattail effects from governors onto other concurrently elected statewide executive officers using a unique data set of county election returns for all statewide executive office elections in the United States from 1987 to 2010. I exploit the disproportionate support that candidates receive from geographically proximate voters, which is often referred to as the friends-and-neighbors vote, to isolate variation in the personal appeal of candidates. The point estimates from my preferred specifications show that a one-percentage-point increase in the personal vote received by a gubernatorial candidate increases their party's secretary of state and attorney general candidates vote shares by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points. In contrast, personal votes for a secretary of state or attorney general candidate have no effect on the performance of their party's gubernatorial candidate or other down-ballot candidates.

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“…The latter does not ensure mental engagement of a serious nature. Recent studies advocate treating exposure and attention as distinct variables producing different results (Drew & Weaver, 1990;Krosnick & Brannon, 1993;Rahn, Krosnick, & Breuning, 1994) and reveal that attention has the power to predict learning as well as or even better than exposure does (Chaffee & Schleuder, 1986;Joslyn & Ceccoli, 1996). Validity might be enhanced by adding attention to measures of exposure and by employing more focused content-specific questions about exposure.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Effects of Political Talk Radio On Political Attitude Formation: Exposure Versus Knowledge

Lee¹,

Cappella²

2001

Political Communication

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The effects of political news on the mass audience are usually difficult to establish empirically. Recent models of mass communication effects have held that political knowledge is a better indicator of media reception than traditional measures of exposure. This claim is tested in two studies of attitudes toward Democratic and Republican leaders during the 1996 U.S. presidential primary campaigns. The impact of messages from three types of political talk radio (PTR) is examined: Rush Limbaugh, other conservative hosts, and liberal/moderate hosts. Political knowledge and exposure to talk radio are found to be equally good predictors of attitudes toward political leaders when studied separately. However, when tested against one another, exposure is the more effective measure. Agreement between Rush Limbaugh's messages and his audience's attitudes toward political figures is consistent and strong. Biased processing of PTR content by audience members with partisan predispositions contrary to those of the host is also examined.Keywords attitude formation, biased processing, media exposure, political knowledge, political leaders, political talk radio GangHeong Lee is an assistant professor at Taegu University, Korea. Joseph N. Cappella is a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. The data reported in this article were collected as part of the political talk radio project conducted at the Annenberg School for Communication and funded by grants to Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph N. Cappella from The Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The views presented are those of the authors alone.Address correspondence to GangHeong Lee via e-mail: glee@asc.upenn.edu.This article examines the effects of political talk radio (PTR) on the formation of voters' attitudes toward political leaders. Political talk radio can be defined as "call-in shows that emphasize discussion of politicians, elections, and public policy issues" (Knight & Barker, 1996, p. 2). Political talk radio was once viewed primarily as a form of entertainment, especially for the lonely (Armstrong & Rubin, 1989;Bierig & Dimmick, 1979;Turow, 1974) and for the less affluent and educated (Crittenden, 1971;Surlin, 1986). In recent years, however, PTR has grown as a major source of political information for many of its audience members. In some circumstances, it can also be a determinant of public opinion and political behavior (Knight & Barker, 1996). Researchers have tried to determine whether media exposure or political knowledge is the better measure of reception of mass communication. Political talk radio provides a good context in which to test Zaller's (1996) claims about media effects because sound 370 GangHeong Lee and Joseph N. Cappella measures of media reception are available, and variance in the content of the messages sent by hosts about political leaders is large. Under these circumstances, Zaller predicts that the effects of messages will be large when receipt of those messages is properly m...

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Rationalization and Derivation Processes in Survey Studies of Political Candidate Evaluation

Cited by 150 publications

References 35 publications

You Must Remember This: A Test of the On-Line Model of Voting

You Must Remember This: A Test of the On-Line Model of Voting

Exploiting Friends-and-Neighbors to Estimate Coattail Effects

The Effects of Political Talk Radio On Political Attitude Formation: Exposure Versus Knowledge

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