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Campaign Effects on the Accessibility of Party Identification

¹ Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
² University of Cincinnati, Ohio
³ Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stephen.mockabee{at}uc.edu.

	Abstract

This study uses response latency, the time required for a survey respondent to formulate an answer upon hearing a question, to examine the accessibility of partisan self-identifications over the course of a political campaign season. Although the aggregate distribution of partisanship remains fairly stable during the campaign, party identifications become more accessible to individuals with weaker party identifications as the election approaches. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the authors find that partisan orientations are more useful in forming political judgments when those orientations are more accessible to the voter. The effect of partisanship on vote choice is a third greater for voters with highly accessible party identifications than for those with less accessible party identifications.

First published on May 15, 2009
Political Research Quarterly 2009, doi:10.1177/1065912909336269


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