Thinking Ideologically: The Limited Role of Left and Right Labels as Policy Shortcuts.
How do voters use left-right ideological labels as shortcuts for policy positions in evaluating electoral candidates? We offer a distinction between maximal and minimal forms of ideological thinking. While maximal thinking implies that voters rely on ideological proximity as a proxy for policy congr...
| Publicado en: | Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 90; no. 3; pp. 730 - 758 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Fall2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=194844047&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 194844047 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0033362X POQ jtl: Public Opinion Quarterly issn: 0033362X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall2026 vid: 90 iid: 3 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 194844047 10.1093/poq/nfag015 ppf: 730 ppct: 28 formats: tig: atl: Thinking Ideologically: The Limited Role of Left and Right Labels as Policy Shortcuts. aug: au: Lachance, Sarah Treger, Clareta affil: Independent Researcher, Toronto, Canada Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; and Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel su: Canada Right & left (Political science) Partisanship Voting research Political systems Decision making in political science sug: subj: Right & left (Political science) Partisanship Voting research Political systems Canada Decision making in political science keyword: Conjoint copyrightHolder:American Association for Public Opinion Research copyrightYear:2026 Heuristics Ideology inLanguage:en Policy positions publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfag015 Voting behavior Conjoint copyrightHolder:American Association for Public Opinion Research copyrightYear:2026 Heuristics Ideology inLanguage:en Policy positions publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfag015 Voting behavior ab: How do voters use left-right ideological labels as shortcuts for policy positions in evaluating electoral candidates? We offer a distinction between maximal and minimal forms of ideological thinking. While maximal thinking implies that voters rely on ideological proximity as a proxy for policy congruence with candidates, minimal thinking requires only that voters use ideological labels to infer candidates' positions—even if their own ideological identification is inconsistent with policy preferences. Drawing on original experimental data from Canada (N = 1,087)—a multiparty system with a fluid ideological landscape—we find that voters' ideological self-placement is often misaligned with their policy positions, especially among right-leaning individuals. However, voters still use ideological proximity to infer candidates' policy stances in the absence of policy information, supporting the Minimal Theory. These findings contribute to theories of political decision-making beyond the United States and have implications for substantive representation in systems with centrist or ideologically flexible parties. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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