Replication Data for: Can followers detect political leaders who cheat? Testing an evolutionary position

Scholars using evolutionary theory to study political psychology find that the average citizen in democracies is unable to choose between political leaders according to their ideologies. Rather, citizens turn to perceptions of procedural fairness during public decision-making when evaluating their leaders. We retest such evolutionary propositions in China using eight Wason selection experiments: In autocracies where accountability systems are lacking, little is known about how citizens judge politicians’ ideologies and their cheating behaviors. Results show that Chinese citizens are incapable of identifying political leaders’ ideological orientations; instead, they activate a cheater-detection system to distinguish between political leaders according to their adherence to procedural fairness principles. The findings advance our understanding of citizens’ democratic competence and followers’ cognitive abilities in autocracies.copy directly from abstract in PSRM publication

运用进化理论开展政治心理学研究的学者发现，民主政体下的普通公民无法依据意识形态在政治领袖间做出选择。相反，公民在评价政治领袖时，会转而诉诸公共决策过程中的程序公平感知。本研究采用八项沃森选择任务（Wason selection task）实验，在中国语境下对这类进化理论命题进行再检验：在问责机制缺失的威权政体中，学界对公民如何评判政客的意识形态及其作弊行为尚缺乏认知。研究结果显示，中国公民无法识别政治领袖的意识形态倾向；相反，他们会启动作弊检测系统，依据政治领袖对程序公平原则的恪守程度来区分彼此。本研究发现有助于深化学界对威权政体下公民民主能力以及追随者认知能力的理解。本内容直接摘编自《政治科学研究与方法》（Political Science Research and Methods，简称PSRM）的学术论文摘要。