Testing the relationship between political cueing and environmental opinion

Azdren Coma

doi:10.7273/000004287

What effect does political cueing have on individual environmental opinion? This study examines the ways in which individual support for government spending to protect the environment is influenced by the political affiliation of politicians sponsoring a proposed increase. The environment is a Democratic-owned issue, and support for environmental protection measures has arguably become an important component of what it means to be a self-identified Democrat. Drawing on social identity theory I predict that, because of this, self-identified Democrats will maintain support for new federal spending to protect the environment regardless of the partisan identity of legislative sponsors. However, individual Republicans who perceive Democratic elites as a threatening are hypothesized to vary support following the political cueing of partisan sponsorship. A survey-experiment using a factorial design was conducted with unique survey data from a convenience sample of voting-age Americans who identify as either Democrats or Republicans (n=800). Respondents were presented a vignette where the partisan identity of legislative sponsors for new federal spending on environmental protection was randomly assigned. Results show that when environmental legislation is sponsored by Democratic legislators, support from Republicans drops about 12% compared to conditions where legislation is sponsored by Republicans or a bipartisan group of legislators. Support among Democrats remains the same regardless of legislative sponsorship. Finally, exploratory analysis of gender differences within parties reveals that it is mainly Republican males, and not females, who respond to outgroup cues.

Testing the relationship between political cueing and environmental opinion

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