Replication Data for: How do voters form perceptions of party positions?

Political debates are structured by underlying conflict dimensions such as left-right and economic and cultural ideology, and these form the basis for voter choice and party competition. However, we know little about how voters arrive at perceptions of parties’ positions on these dimensions. We examine how the emphasis parties place on the different issues that make up a higher-level ideological dimension affects perceptions of their positions on that dimension. Using two population-based survey experiments, we present respondents with either short or long statements that communicate the same issue stances. We then test whether the length of statements affects positional perceptions on the higher-level dimension. The empirical results show support for our hypotheses and imply that political parties – and the context in which they compete – can affect their perceived position even if underlying issue stances remain stable.

政治辩论的框架由深层冲突维度所确立，例如左右翼光谱、经济与文化意识形态范畴，而这些维度正是选民投票抉择与政党竞争的核心根基。然而，学界目前对选民如何形成对政党在这些维度上的立场认知仍缺乏充分认知。本研究聚焦于：政党对构成某一高层意识形态维度的各类议题的侧重程度，将如何影响选民对该政党在该维度上的立场认知。本研究依托两项全人口抽样调查实验，为被试呈现传递相同议题立场的长短两种表述文本，随后检验表述文本的长度是否会对被试关于该高层意识形态维度的政党立场认知产生影响。实证结果支持本研究提出的各项假说，同时表明：即便政党的底层议题立场保持稳定，其自身以及其所处的竞争语境，均可改变公众对其政治立场的认知。