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Yale Study: People Vote Party, Not Principles
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Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - People vote on an issue based on the facts and their ideology, or personal beliefs, but they disregard both the facts and their personal beliefs when they are aware of their political party's position, according to a new Yale study. Moreover, people are not cognizant that they are influenced by their party's position and believe that their stance stems from an objective assessment of the policy's merits.
"This research suggests that people base consequential attitudes about important social problems largely upon the attitude of party leaders and peers," explains Geoffrey Cohen, assistant professor of psychology and author of the study published in the November issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "And they do so while remaining convinced that they have formed their beliefs autonomously and objectively."
One of Cohen's studies included 48 individuals earlier identified as liberals and 31 identified as conservatives. They voted on two hypothetical welfare policies: one very generous and the other very stringent. When they did not know the position of their party, people voted consistently with their personal ideology and the objective content of the policy. Liberals preferred the generous policy, conservatives the stringent one. However, when informed of their political party's position on the issue, they disregarded the content of the policy and assumed the party's position. In addition, individuals thought that votes contrary to their own were based on partisanship and political biases.
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