Casual Models of Partisan Minds
laboratory experiment
political cognition
methodology
Do Americans see partisanship as the source of other citizens’ policy preferences, or do they believe policy preferences determine what party others choose? These two worldviews induce divergent responses to information about others’ issue concerns: if party is a cause, then different issue concerns are correlated outcomes, but if it is a consequence, then the different issues are substitute explanations. Using a laboratory experiment, I find most individuals consistently interpret others’ actions according to one of these narratives. However, as they learn about others’ lack of ideological constraint, they increasingly attribute others’ actions to issue-motivations.