Reaching the Uninterested by Referring to Valence Traits during Electoral Campaigns

• Authors: Wojciech Rafałowski

Title variants

PL

Docieranie do niezainteresowanych przez odwoływanie się do cech walencyjnych podczas kampanii wyborczych

Abstracts

PL

Efektywna komunikacja wymaga od nadawcy dostosowania wiadomości do możliwości poznawczych odbiorcy. Wiadomości, które są zbyt złożone lub mało interesujące, mogą łatwo zostać zignorowane. Niemożność dotarcia z przekazem do wyborców podczas kampanii stanowi problem dla startujących w wyborach partii. W niniejszym opracowaniu badam, czy partie w krajach, w których wyborcy są mniej wyrobieni politycznie, są bardziej skłonne do eksponowania swoich cech walencyjnych podczas kampanii, które uważa się za bardziej dostępne poznawczo, kosztem ich propozycji politycznych. Wyniki uzyskane na podstawie danych zebranych w dziesięciu demokracjach europejskich pokazują, że partie w krajach, w których opinia publiczna jest mniej zainteresowana polityką, poświęcają więcej uwagi cechom walencyjnym, zwłaszcza uczciwości. Poziom wykształcenia elektoratu nie ma znaczenia dla eksponowania cech walencyjnych.

EN

Successful communication requires the sender of the message to adjust its content to the cognitive abilities of the receiver. Messages that are too complex or not interesting can be easily ignored. Failing to reach the voters with a message during a campaign is troubling for the parties competing in the election. In this study, I explore whether parties in countries in which the voters are less politically sophisticated are more inclined to emphasize their valence traits during campaigns – as these are deemed to be more cognitively accessible – at the expense of discussions of their policy propositions. The results obtained using data collected in ten European democracies show that parties in countries where the general public is less interested in politics tend to devote more attention to exhibiting their valence traits, especially honesty. The level of education of the electorate is not relevant to the relative salience of valence.

Keywords

EN

competence; honesty; valence campaigning; political sophistication; interest in politics

PL

kompetencja; uczciwość; kampania walencyjna; wyrobienie polityczne; zainteresowanie polityką

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Athenaeum. Polskie Studia Politologiczne
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 75
• Pages: 7-36

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Wojciech Rafałowski

• University of Warsaw

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Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/athena.2022.75.01

Biblioteka Nauki

2163352