Replication Data for: Partisan Messages and Support for Democratic Institutions: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia

We examine the relationship between partisan social media messages and voters’ support for undemocratic transgressions against the institutions of the President and Congress. Our survey experiments in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia randomly exposed respondents to partisan messages about contentious and consensus issues such as inflation, abortion, crime, and protests. We then assessed whether these messages increased support for undemocratic transgressions. Our findings reveal distinct inter-party differences: opposition voters were more inclined to support presidential impeachment, while incumbent voters were more predisposed to dissolve Congress. However, contrary to our initial pre-registered hypotheses, exposure to partisan social media messages did not consistently augment these tendencies. This implies that while voters often endorse undemocratic measures in line with their partisan leanings, exposure to partisan discourse on social media does not heighten those preferences.

本研究考察了党派性社交媒体言论与选民对针对总统及国会机构的非民主越界行为的支持度之间的关联。我们在巴西、智利与哥伦比亚开展了调查实验，将受访者随机暴露于围绕通胀、堕胎、犯罪与抗议等争议性与共识性议题的党派性言论中。随后我们评估了此类言论是否会提升选民对非民主越界行为的支持度。研究结果揭示了显著的党派间差异：反对党选民更倾向于支持弹劾总统，而执政党支持者则更倾向于推动解散国会。然而，与我们最初预先注册的研究假设相悖，接触党派性社交媒体言论并未持续强化上述倾向。这表明，尽管选民往往会依据自身党派立场支持非民主举措，但社交媒体上的党派言论并未强化这类偏好。