THE RELATIONSHIP OF NATIONAL AND PERSONAL ISSUE SALIENCE TO ATTITUDE ACCESSIBILITY ON FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY ISSUES

Research on issue voting indicates that the impact of a given attitude on the candidate appraisal process depends on its personal importance or salience (e.g., Krosnick, 1988). In the present research, we sugge st that salient attitudes may be more influential because they are mor e cognitively accessible in memory relative to less salient attitudes. Results based on within-subject, between-issue comparisons indicate t hat individuals have more accessible attitudes toward issues that are highly salient to them then toward issues that are relatively less sal ient. Results also indicate that attitude accessibility is more closel y associated with the personal importance of an issue than with the pe rceived national importance of an issue. Finally, in applying this acc essibility analysis to the debate on the relative electoral influence of foreign versus domestic issues, we find that attitudes on the latte r are more accessible and more likely to arouse self-interest. Discuss ion focuses on developing process models of political cognition and be havior, and on the utility of accessibility theory in providing insigh ts into these processes.