INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL VARIATIONS IN POLITICAL CANDIDATE APPRAISAL

In this note we elaborate on the conditions under which on-line and me mory-based strategies of political candidate evaluation can be impleme nted. We suggest that the structure of information may be an important contextual variable affecting the voter's choice of these strategies. In addition, we propose that citizens with less political sophisticat ion are particularly sensitive to structural differences in the politi cal information environment. We use an experimental design that manipu lates the information-processing context to test these ideas. Our resu lts suggest that the context in which information is presented plays a critical role in moderating the influence of individual differences i n political sophistication.