How valuable are endorsements in politics? Here are 3 lessons from political psychology
in political psychology in which people are asked to indicate their support for various social and economic policies. Not surprisingly, liberals tend to support generous welfare policies while conservatives tend to oppose them. But what happens when people are told the policy is supported by a majority of House Democrats/Republicans? It turns out that liberals will agree with conservative welfare policies when such policies are supported by House Democrats.
Why? A lot of it has to do with what some might call cognitive “laziness.” Our capacity to engage in effortful thought is limited and, believe it or not, few people want to spend their precious cognitive energy on politics. The fact is that it’s much easier to follow the party line than to evaluate the merits and shortcomings of each and every political policy.
The same process applies to political endorsements. If voters in South Carolina hear that Jim Clyburn is endorsing Joe Biden, they assume that Biden stands for the same principles as Clyburn, which saves them the cognitive effort of actually digging into Biden’s policy proposals and voting record.Not all meaningful political endorsements come from within politics. Celebrities also have been known to step into the political ring to throw their weight behind their preferred candidate.
the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on November 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. The Medal of Freedom is the country's foremost civilian honor. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN How valuable can these endorsements be? Research conducted by the University of Maryland economists, Craig Garthwaite and Timothy Moore, provides one useful.
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