The Influence of Partisan Motivated Reasoning on Public Opinion

Political parties play a vital role in democracies by linking citizens to their representatives. Nonetheless, a longstanding concern is that partisan identification slants decision-making. Citizens may support (oppose) policies that they would otherwise oppose (support) in the absence of an endorsem...

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Veröffentlicht in:Political behavior Jg. 36; H. 2; S. 235 - 262
Hauptverfasser: Bolsen, Toby, Druckman, James N., Cook, Fay Lomax
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Boston Springer Science+Business Media LLC 01.06.2014
Springer US
Springer Nature B.V
Schlagworte:
Attitudes
Bipartisanship
Citizens
Cognition & reasoning
Decision Making
Democracy
Energy
Energy policy
Experiments
Identification
Law
Motivated reasoning
Motivation
Motivation research
Original Paper
Partisanship
Political Parties
Political partisanship
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Psychology
Public Opinion
Public opinion surveys
Reasoning
Sociology
Trust
Parties
Motivated reasoning
Partisan trust
Experiment
ISSN:0190-9320, 1573-6687
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Zusammenfassung:Political parties play a vital role in democracies by linking citizens to their representatives. Nonetheless, a longstanding concern is that partisan identification slants decision-making. Citizens may support (oppose) policies that they would otherwise oppose (support) in the absence of an endorsement from a political party—this is due in large part to what is called partisan motivated reasoning where individuals interpret information through the lens of their party commitment. We explore partisan motivated reasoning in a survey experiment focusing on support for an energy law. We identify two politically relevant factors that condition partisan motivated reasoning: (1) an explicit inducement to form an "accurate" opinion, and (2) cross-partisan, but not consensus, bipartisan support for the law. We further provide evidence of how partisan motivated reasoning works psychologically and affects opinion strength. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for understanding opinion formation and the overall quality of citizens' opinions.
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ISSN:0190-9320
1573-6687
DOI:10.1007/s11109-013-9238-0