Anthony Gooch
Biographic Data
| ID | 1144108 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anthony Gooch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anthony |
| FAMILY NAME | Gooch |
| SIGNATURE | GOOCH A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rowan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1001-2438 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1968 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Assessing Ideological Representation Using Policy Repositioning
Assessing ideological representation can be difficult because perceived ideology and party identification correlate strongly among presidential nominees. Democratic nominees are consistently liberal, and Republican nominees are consistently conservative. However, Trump’s 2016 candidacy included ambiguous, liberal, and extremely conservative positions. While in-office, Trump repositioned to uniformly conservative policy positions. This presents an…
Weak Connection between Policy Repositioning and Affective Polarization
This project investigates the connection between policy repositioning (aka flip-flopping) at the elite level and affective polarization. Although usually conceptualized as a mass-level phenomenon, affective polarization might be influenced by elite-level cues. Using a randomized survey experiment with ten candidate profiles, I evaluated a hypothetical candidate who repositions on immigration policy. Unlike past research, my design uses a campaign…
Policy proximity and candidate repositioning
Candidates and parties often have to decide in campaigns whether to remain consistent on policy positions that do not match the median voter or reposition towards moderate. This type of strategic ‘flip-flopping’ is controversial and debated regularly in the media. This study provides causal evidence on this topic by placing candidates and voters on the same policy scale in an experimental setting (n = 4351). Candidates randomly reposition to the …
Asymmetric Partisan and Ideological Evaluations from Candidate Repositioning
This paper explores partisan and ideological differences in evaluations of a hypothetical candidate who repositions after a campaign (aka “flip-flopping”). This study uses a survey experiment with three randomized conditions and a sample of 1338 respondents. The analysis includes average treatment effects and results by 1) a respondent’s party identification and 2) a respondent’s preferred immigration policy position. I show that a candidate (wit…
Candidate Repositioning, Valence, and a Backfire Effect from Criticism
Politicians who switch policy positions are often criticized for being inconsistent “flip-floppers”, which suggests a valence penalty for repositioning. Using a survey experiment with six treatment conditions and a sample of 2694 respondents, results show that candidates receive an increase in favorability and perceived competency when holding a consistent position on asylum seekers from the campaign to holding office. Repositioning on asylum see…
Evaluations of candidates' non-policy characteristics from issue positions
Generating Support for a Hypothetical War
Objective Support for wars that involve the United States typically divides by party identification among American voters, leading many scholars to believe that voters need only a partisan cue to go along with war. However, presidents do not endorse war in isolation; instead, they justify it with a variety of reasons ranging from minimal to extensive. Causally identifying these factors—partisan cues and justifications—can be challenging because (…
How Issue Positions Affect Candidate Performance
Polls and Elections
Testing theories of how candidate positions affect voting is often complicated by the strong correlation between candidate partisanship and candidate positions. We take advantage of Donald Trump's unusual candidacy to understand how candidates who depart from standard party positions affect perceptions of ideology and voting. We show in both 2016 and 2008 that respondents were more likely to report voting for the more ideologically proximate cand…
Nongovernmental Campaign Communication Providing Ballot Secrecy Assurances Increases Turnout
Doubts about the integrity of ballot secrecy persist and depress political participation among the American public. Prior experiments have shown that official communications directly addressing these doubts increase turnout among recently registered voters who had not previously voted, but evaluations of similar messages sent by nongovernmental campaigns have yielded only suggestive effects. We build on past research and analyze two large-scale f…
Ripping Yarn
This article explores the role of personalized storytelling by partisan elites using a content analysis and two experiments. By personalized storytelling, I mean a political message in the form of a narrative that includes a specific reference to an individual affected by an issue. Using a content analysis of party convention speeches, this article shows that presidential candidates tell an increasing amount of stories, particularly from 1980 onw…
The Generalizability of Social Pressure Effects on Turnout Across High-Salience Electoral Contexts
Prior experiments show that campaign communications revealing subjects’ past turnout and applying social pressure to vote (the “Self” treatment) increase turnout. However, nearly all existing studies are conducted in low-salience elections, raising concerns that published findings are not generalizable and are an artifact of sample selection and publication bias. Addressing the need for further replication in high-salience elections, we analyze a…
How Face-to-Face Interviews and Cognitive Skill Affect Item Non-Response
Technology and the decreased cost of survey research have made it possible for researchers to collect data using new and varied modes of interview. These data are often analyzed as if they were generated using similar processes, but the modes of interview may produce differences in response simply due to the presence or absence of an interviewer. In this paper, we explore the differences in item non-response that result from different modes of in…
Measurements of cognitive skill by survey mode
This paper addresses how measurements of cognitive skill differ based on survey mode, from a face-to-face interview to a self-completed survey, using the Wordsum vocabulary test found in the General Social Survey. The Wordsum acts as a proxy for general cognitive skill, and it has been used to predict a variety of political variables. Therefore, knowing differences in cognitive skill by mode are important for political science research because of…
A Surrealistic Referendum
THE POSITIONS OF THE TWO MAIN SPANISH POLITICAL PARTIES vis-8-vis the NATO referendum held on 12 March 1986 have caused commentators to recall that Spain, although much less so of late, always was ‘different’ and ‘dramatic’; Lord Carrington, on a boost-the-Atlantic-Alliance visit to Madrid, was reported to have gone one better and said that a country in which those in favour appeared not to be going to vote at all, while those who had been totall…
Diminutive, Augmentative and Pejorative Suffixes in Modern Spanish
How Face-to-Face Interviews and Cognitive Skill Affect Item Non-Response
Technology and the decreased cost of survey research have made it possible for researchers to collect data using new and varied modes of interview. These data are often analyzed as if they were generated using similar processes, but the modes of interview may produce differences in response simply due to the presence or absence of an interviewer. In this paper, we explore the differences in item non-response that result from different modes of in…
How Issue Positions Affect Candidate Performance
Ripping Yarn
This article explores the role of personalized storytelling by partisan elites using a content analysis and two experiments. By personalized storytelling, I mean a political message in the form of a narrative that includes a specific reference to an individual affected by an issue. Using a content analysis of party convention speeches, this article shows that presidential candidates tell an increasing amount of stories, particularly from 1980 onw…
Candidate Repositioning, Valence, and a Backfire Effect from Criticism
Politicians who switch policy positions are often criticized for being inconsistent “flip-floppers”, which suggests a valence penalty for repositioning. Using a survey experiment with six treatment conditions and a sample of 2694 respondents, results show that candidates receive an increase in favorability and perceived competency when holding a consistent position on asylum seekers from the campaign to holding office. Repositioning on asylum see…
Evaluations of candidates' non-policy characteristics from issue positions
Polls and Elections
Testing theories of how candidate positions affect voting is often complicated by the strong correlation between candidate partisanship and candidate positions. We take advantage of Donald Trump's unusual candidacy to understand how candidates who depart from standard party positions affect perceptions of ideology and voting. We show in both 2016 and 2008 that respondents were more likely to report voting for the more ideologically proximate cand…
The Generalizability of Social Pressure Effects on Turnout Across High-Salience Electoral Contexts
Prior experiments show that campaign communications revealing subjects’ past turnout and applying social pressure to vote (the “Self” treatment) increase turnout. However, nearly all existing studies are conducted in low-salience elections, raising concerns that published findings are not generalizable and are an artifact of sample selection and publication bias. Addressing the need for further replication in high-salience elections, we analyze a…
Measurements of cognitive skill by survey mode
This paper addresses how measurements of cognitive skill differ based on survey mode, from a face-to-face interview to a self-completed survey, using the Wordsum vocabulary test found in the General Social Survey. The Wordsum acts as a proxy for general cognitive skill, and it has been used to predict a variety of political variables. Therefore, knowing differences in cognitive skill by mode are important for political science research because of…
Nongovernmental Campaign Communication Providing Ballot Secrecy Assurances Increases Turnout
Doubts about the integrity of ballot secrecy persist and depress political participation among the American public. Prior experiments have shown that official communications directly addressing these doubts increase turnout among recently registered voters who had not previously voted, but evaluations of similar messages sent by nongovernmental campaigns have yielded only suggestive effects. We build on past research and analyze two large-scale f…
Asymmetric Partisan and Ideological Evaluations from Candidate Repositioning
This paper explores partisan and ideological differences in evaluations of a hypothetical candidate who repositions after a campaign (aka “flip-flopping”). This study uses a survey experiment with three randomized conditions and a sample of 1338 respondents. The analysis includes average treatment effects and results by 1) a respondent’s party identification and 2) a respondent’s preferred immigration policy position. I show that a candidate (wit…
Generating Support for a Hypothetical War
Objective Support for wars that involve the United States typically divides by party identification among American voters, leading many scholars to believe that voters need only a partisan cue to go along with war. However, presidents do not endorse war in isolation; instead, they justify it with a variety of reasons ranging from minimal to extensive. Causally identifying these factors—partisan cues and justifications—can be challenging because (…
A Surrealistic Referendum
THE POSITIONS OF THE TWO MAIN SPANISH POLITICAL PARTIES vis-8-vis the NATO referendum held on 12 March 1986 have caused commentators to recall that Spain, although much less so of late, always was ‘different’ and ‘dramatic’; Lord Carrington, on a boost-the-Atlantic-Alliance visit to Madrid, was reported to have gone one better and said that a country in which those in favour appeared not to be going to vote at all, while those who had been totall…
Diminutive, Augmentative and Pejorative Suffixes in Modern Spanish
A Surrealistic Referendum
THE POSITIONS OF THE TWO MAIN SPANISH POLITICAL PARTIES vis-8-vis the NATO referendum held on 12 March 1986 have caused commentators to recall that Spain, although much less so of late, always was ‘different’ and ‘dramatic’; Lord Carrington, on a boost-the-Atlantic-Alliance visit to Madrid, was reported to have gone one better and said that a country in which those in favour appeared not to be going to vote at all, while those who had been totall…
Measurements of cognitive skill by survey mode
This paper addresses how measurements of cognitive skill differ based on survey mode, from a face-to-face interview to a self-completed survey, using the Wordsum vocabulary test found in the General Social Survey. The Wordsum acts as a proxy for general cognitive skill, and it has been used to predict a variety of political variables. Therefore, knowing differences in cognitive skill by mode are important for political science research because of…
How Face-to-Face Interviews and Cognitive Skill Affect Item Non-Response
Technology and the decreased cost of survey research have made it possible for researchers to collect data using new and varied modes of interview. These data are often analyzed as if they were generated using similar processes, but the modes of interview may produce differences in response simply due to the presence or absence of an interviewer. In this paper, we explore the differences in item non-response that result from different modes of in…
The Generalizability of Social Pressure Effects on Turnout Across High-Salience Electoral Contexts
Prior experiments show that campaign communications revealing subjects’ past turnout and applying social pressure to vote (the “Self” treatment) increase turnout. However, nearly all existing studies are conducted in low-salience elections, raising concerns that published findings are not generalizable and are an artifact of sample selection and publication bias. Addressing the need for further replication in high-salience elections, we analyze a…
Polls and Elections
Testing theories of how candidate positions affect voting is often complicated by the strong correlation between candidate partisanship and candidate positions. We take advantage of Donald Trump's unusual candidacy to understand how candidates who depart from standard party positions affect perceptions of ideology and voting. We show in both 2016 and 2008 that respondents were more likely to report voting for the more ideologically proximate cand…
Nongovernmental Campaign Communication Providing Ballot Secrecy Assurances Increases Turnout
Doubts about the integrity of ballot secrecy persist and depress political participation among the American public. Prior experiments have shown that official communications directly addressing these doubts increase turnout among recently registered voters who had not previously voted, but evaluations of similar messages sent by nongovernmental campaigns have yielded only suggestive effects. We build on past research and analyze two large-scale f…
Ripping Yarn
This article explores the role of personalized storytelling by partisan elites using a content analysis and two experiments. By personalized storytelling, I mean a political message in the form of a narrative that includes a specific reference to an individual affected by an issue. Using a content analysis of party convention speeches, this article shows that presidential candidates tell an increasing amount of stories, particularly from 1980 onw…
Generating Support for a Hypothetical War
Objective Support for wars that involve the United States typically divides by party identification among American voters, leading many scholars to believe that voters need only a partisan cue to go along with war. However, presidents do not endorse war in isolation; instead, they justify it with a variety of reasons ranging from minimal to extensive. Causally identifying these factors—partisan cues and justifications—can be challenging because (…
How Issue Positions Affect Candidate Performance
Evaluations of candidates' non-policy characteristics from issue positions
Candidate Repositioning, Valence, and a Backfire Effect from Criticism
Politicians who switch policy positions are often criticized for being inconsistent “flip-floppers”, which suggests a valence penalty for repositioning. Using a survey experiment with six treatment conditions and a sample of 2694 respondents, results show that candidates receive an increase in favorability and perceived competency when holding a consistent position on asylum seekers from the campaign to holding office. Repositioning on asylum see…
Asymmetric Partisan and Ideological Evaluations from Candidate Repositioning
This paper explores partisan and ideological differences in evaluations of a hypothetical candidate who repositions after a campaign (aka “flip-flopping”). This study uses a survey experiment with three randomized conditions and a sample of 1338 respondents. The analysis includes average treatment effects and results by 1) a respondent’s party identification and 2) a respondent’s preferred immigration policy position. I show that a candidate (wit…
Weak Connection between Policy Repositioning and Affective Polarization
This project investigates the connection between policy repositioning (aka flip-flopping) at the elite level and affective polarization. Although usually conceptualized as a mass-level phenomenon, affective polarization might be influenced by elite-level cues. Using a randomized survey experiment with ten candidate profiles, I evaluated a hypothetical candidate who repositions on immigration policy. Unlike past research, my design uses a campaign…
Policy proximity and candidate repositioning
Candidates and parties often have to decide in campaigns whether to remain consistent on policy positions that do not match the median voter or reposition towards moderate. This type of strategic ‘flip-flopping’ is controversial and debated regularly in the media. This study provides causal evidence on this topic by placing candidates and voters on the same policy scale in an experimental setting (n = 4351). Candidates randomly reposition to the …
Assessing Ideological Representation Using Policy Repositioning
Assessing ideological representation can be difficult because perceived ideology and party identification correlate strongly among presidential nominees. Democratic nominees are consistently liberal, and Republican nominees are consistently conservative. However, Trump’s 2016 candidacy included ambiguous, liberal, and extremely conservative positions. While in-office, Trump repositioned to uniformly conservative policy positions. This presents an…
Electoral Systems and Political Participation (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works)