The impact of political sophistication on the use cognitive shortcuts: evidence from experiments and secondary data

Brusattin, Lorenzo

The impact of political sophistication on the use cognitive shortcuts: evidence from experiments and secondary data

Document Type

Doctoral thesis
Published Version

Author

Brusattin, Lorenzo

Director

Torcal, Mariano

Publication Date

2012-07-20

Pages

115 p.

Citation

Brusattin, L. The impact of political sophistication on the use cognitive shortcuts: evidence from experiments and secondary data. Universitat Pompeu Fabra; 2012. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/85409

This citation was generated automatically.

Doctoral program

Programa de doctorat en Ciències Polítiques i Socials

Abstract

This research project assesses the role played by political sophistication in terms of itsimpact on the voters’ resort to cognitive shortcuts, with reference both to the consciousand non-conscious components of voting decisions. The investigation scrutinisesempirically the way both sophisticated and unsophisticated individuals make politicaljudgments when prompted with cognitive cues in three different settings. In each ofthem a specific type of cue impinges on the political judgment of individuals at adifferent level and leads to a specific decisional outcome. The overall findings castdoubts on the virtues of heuristic reasoning as effective remedy for voters who have tofind their bearings in the ballot box, but they also downplay the importance of politicalsophistication when visual or subliminal cues are involved in the decision.
Aquest projecte de recerca avalua el paper exercit per la sofisticació política en termesdel seu impacte sobre el recurs dels votants als atalls cognitius, amb referència tant alscomponents conscients i no conscients de les decisions de vot. La investigació examinaempíricament la manera com ambdós individus sofisticats i no sofisticats fan judicispolítics quan si li estimuli amb senyals cognitives de tres tipus diferents. En cada und'ells un tipus específic de atall incideix en el judici polític dels individus en un nivelldiferent i condueix a un resultat específic de presa de decisions. Els resultats generalsposen en dubte les virtuts del raonament heurístic com a remei eficaç per als votants ques’han d'orientar a les urnes, sinó que també minimitzen la importància de la sofisticaciópolítica, quan senyals visuals o subliminals estan involucrats en la decisió.