Empra-Poster

Populistisch - das sind immer die Anderen! Der Einfluss von Gruppenzugehörigkeit auf die Wahrnehmung von politischen Aussagen

Titel

Populistisch - das sind immer die Anderen! Der Einfluss von Gruppenzugehörigkeit auf die Wahrnehmung von politischen Aussagen

AutorInnen

Pallentin, V., Roßmaier, A., Sobotta, A., Wöstenfeld, F.

Abstract

Previous studies measured the impact of party identification on the perception of political statements. Less attention has been given, however, to the voters' evaluation of politically neutral populist statements and how perception might be biased depending on experimentally controlled party preferences. We assumed that populism would be observed in statements of the political outgroup but overlooked in statements of the ingroup. We furthermore hypothesized that this bias would be more distinct for people with a more extreme political ideology, both left and right. Using a political questionnaire to manipulate party identification, participants were randomly allocated to two imaginary parties and rated populism of statements from both in- and outgroup. No difference in participants’ evaluation of politically neutral statements randomly paired with one of the two respective parties was observed. Participants political positions did not moderate the influence of statement source on the evaluation. Discussing these results in the context of the Michigan models' concept of party identification (Campbell, Converse, Miller & Stokes, 1960) and the rational choice perspective (Downs, 1957) we questioned the validity of both theories. If participants believed the manipulation to be real, our results indicate statement evaluation based on rational arguments. Further research should examine strength of party identification and degree of ambiguity of statements as influential factors.

Schlagworte

Party Identification, Populism