The long shadow of attitudes
Differential campaign effects and issue voting in EU referendums
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6407993 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Derek Beach (0000-0003-1869-0145, Aarhus University, corresponding author), Daniel Finke (0000-0002-9028-8188, Aarhus University) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 1482-1505 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | West European Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01402382.2020.1780829 |
| OpenAlex | W3040095578 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 37 |
Can voters be persuaded by referendum campaigns? This article develops a theoretical model that synthesises the existing literature on campaign effects and issue-voting by arguing that the strength of pre-existing attitudes conditions voter receptivity to campaign arguments, thereby also determining their eventual vote choice. Using original panel data for the 2015 Danish opt-out referendum, there is evidence that attitude strength matters for whether voters are responsive to persuasion during campaigns. The article finds that voters with the most strongly-held attitudes felt well informed and certain about the consequences of the vote even before the start of the campaign, whereas voters with moderately-held attitudes are found to be more prone to believe those campaign arguments that are consistent with their EU attitudes, changing their vote intentions accordingly. Finally, voters with weakly-held attitudes were equally persuadable for the No and the Yes side of the campaign, but they are also the least pre-disposed to pay attention to campaign messages. The conclusions discuss the broader implications of the findings for our understanding of EU referendum campaigns
Economics · Persuasion · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Referendum · Shadow (psychology · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology
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Meta-judgmental versus operative indexes of psychological attributes
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Theoretical and Empirical Implications of Attitude Strength
Hot Cognition or Cool Consideration? Testing the Effects of Motivated Reasoning on Political Decision Making
Same Facts, Different Interpretations
Uncertainty and Political Perceptions
Helping Citizens Decide in Referendums
Political Parties, Motivated Reasoning, and Public Opinion Formation
The Scope of Partisan Influence on Policy Opinion
The Motivated Processing of Political Arguments
Emotions and voting in EU referendums
Calculation, Community and Cues
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Direct democracy and regional integration
The Politics of Motivation
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Attitude Importance and the Accumulation of Attitude-Relevant Knowledge in Memory
The Mechanics of Motivated Reasoning
The case for motivated reasoning
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |