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Endorsements as Voting Cues: Heuristic and Systematic Processing in Initiative Elections 1
Author(s) -
Forehand Mark,
Gastil John,
Smith Mark A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb01974.x
Subject(s) - ballot , voting , heuristic , psychology , social psychology , voting behavior , public relations , political science , computer science , artificial intelligence , law , politics
This project explores how organizational endorsements influence voter attitudes during initiative elections. Building on the heuristic‐systematic model (Chaiken, 1980; Chen & Chaiken, 1999), we propose that voters use organizational endorsements as heuristic cues to help them develop their attitudes toward initiatives. It is hypothesized that the influence of endorsements on initiative voting depends on the applicability, availability, and diagnosticity of the endorsement voting cue and on the degree to which the voter is motivated to fully evaluate the arguments behind the initiative. An experiment was conducted in which motivation (processing goal instructions), cue applicability (match between endorsing organization and initiative), and initiative (four different hypothetical ballot issues) were manipulated. Results showed support for our first two hypotheses, but not for the third.