Do Citizens use Sociodemographic Characteristics as Cues to Infer Candidate Issue Positions?

Abstract

Respondents were asked about their party identification (PID) using the following question: ”In general, which political party best represents your opinions? Please name one party, even if you are not eligible to vote.”. We measure political interest with the following survey item: ”How strongly or not strongly are you interested in politics in general?”. Respondents could answer on a scale from 1 (not strongly at all) to 5 (very strongly). For the binary measure of political interest, everything from 1-3 (not strongly at all, not strongly, medium) is coded as 0, and 4-5 (strongly, very strongly) as 1.