JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER - THE EFFECTS OF CANDIDATE PARTY LABEL AND ISSUE STANDS ON VOTING-BEHAVIOR

Americans vote party lines; nothing predicts election outcomes as well . People may vote party lines because party candidates have views that accurately reflect the positions of their members, because party iden tification acts as a convenient cue that eliminates the need for great er information search or cognitive processing, or because party classi fication biases interpretation of other information people have about the candidates. To investigate these competing hypotheses for party ef fects on voter decision making, participants were presented with a cho ice between 2 candidates whose policy positions were more inconsistent than consistent with their party identification (Study 1), or complet ely inconsistent with their party identification (Study 2). People vot ed as a function of party label in Study I, but issue stand emerged as a stronger predictor in Study 2 (although Democrats were more likely to cross party lines than Republicans). These results suggest that par ty identification influences how other information about the candidate is perceived and processed. Theoretical and practical implications ar e discussed.