The Causal Effects of Elite Position-Taking on Voter Attitudes: Field Experiments with Elite Communication
There are three basic theories for how people form their political opinions:
- Issue Voting: Some people think that citizens mainly judge politicians based on their policy positions, and politicians try to match what the citizens want.
- Position Adoption: Another perspective says that citizens trust the judgments of politicians and do not require persuasive arguments to change their views on issues.
- Elite Persuasion: Others believe that citizens' opinions are shaped by politicians and influential people who can convince them to change their minds.
But they did an experiment to see if politicians can change people's minds simply by stating their positions. They did experiments with real politicians and found that citizens were more likely to agree with their politicians when they knew their positions. Providing more reasons or justifications didn't change people's opinions much. All a politician needs to do is tell them the position they are taking, and people who share a political identity with that politician generally adopt that position.
They also looked at whether citizens liked their politicians less when they found out the politicians disagreed with them on issues. Surprisingly, they found that this didn't make people like their politicians less, even when politicians didn't give many reasons for their positions.
So in general, positions do not seem to drive political opinions. If someone who represents your political identity starts offering a particular position, you are very likely to start echoing that position. But you probably are not consciously aware that you are doing that. And you're pretty sure that's what those other people are doing ...