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Wallace's Political Party Case Study

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In Table 4, we are shown how the respondents, both aschematic and schematic, view Wallace and his political party after reviewing the information within his profile and the questions they were asked about his stance of various issues. Though some of the individuals surveyed, read in his profile that he was a Democrat and some that he was a Republican, the range of issues and positions, go back and forth, crossing party lines. Because of this information, regardless of whether or not the respondents were told his political affiliation, the most logical choice when asked his about Wallace’s perceived ideology should have been “Moderate”. This is the most logical response, as many of the questions that asked about his political views did not explicitly …show more content…

The Feeling Thermometer Rating expresses how the respondent feels about Wallace, with subjects ranking him on a scale of 1 - 100, and a rating of 50 being neutral toward the candidate. The Cognitive Model of Attitude Formation states that you must call to mind information about an object and then calculate the attitude based on the weighted sum of beeliefs based on the salience (availability) and centrality (importance) of a specific attribute. Each and every bit of information within Wallace’s bio allowed those surveyed to store information and form attitudes about Wallace. Everything from his party affiliation, to his baseball ticket scandal and his perceived competency to be a good leader, formed each persons attitudes toward him. Their overall calculated belief was then formed based on the valence of each issue, with every persons response differing as some issues involving more salience or some more centrality than others. The differences would not solely result from party, but also within parties for instance, to one schematic Republican respondent, immigration may be the most important issue so they would assign it a higher level of centrality, which would affect its valence. The Cognitive Model of Attitude Formation argues that specifically schematic respondents should have stronger feelings about the candidate than aschematics as they have more information stored. If told that Wallace was a Republican or Democrat, schematics are able to activate their schemas having more salience of political knowledge with both Panel 1 and Panel 2 show evidence of this. Schematics, due to activated schemas hold stronger beliefs and were therefore less likely to give a higher overall score on the Feeling Thermometer when Wallace held a party view that was the opposite of their onwn. Schematic Republicans and

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