Local politics as a context for polarizing cues

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is adequate research demonstrating that source cues (such as prominent politicians or interest groups) can move public support for some policies, however, most of the research on source cues in the United States tests the impact of national leaders or parties as cues. We argue that hypotheses about source cues should be tested in other settings, such as local politics. Local settings offer a test where source cues may not be so closely tied to partisan identity. We hypothesize that in contexts where the source is well-known, and the policy is relatively obscure, source cues can polarize public opinion substantially. However, on highly salient policies the impact of source cues may be much weaker. We report the results of three survey experiments testing the polarizing impact of a mayor as a source cue on city voters. We find strong source cue effects in each test. The often racially divisive nature and machine-versus-reform type polarization of urban politics provides a fertile context for testing the polarizing impact of source cues.