Understanding Australian Voters’ Reactions to Allegations of Political Party Misconduct: The Role of Party Identification

ABSTRACT Relationships between an organization and its key strategic publics form a central construct of study in strategic communication and public relations literature. The present study draws upon strategic communication, consumer psychology, and political science literature to explore a relatively understudied phenomenon, i.e., publics’ relationship dissolution intentions, specifically in the context of political party-voter relationships. This study examined the roles of party identification and political cynicism in predicting individuals’ relationship dissolution intentions with their political party upon learning of misconduct allegations against their political party. An online survey was conducted in February 2019 among Australians to examine the linkages between their political cynicism, party identification, distrust and perceived moral inequity, and attendant relationship dissolution intentions. The results revealed that individuals’ strength of party identification mitigated their negative evaluation of the alleged misconduct, whereas political cynicism increased it. Perceived moral inequity was found to positively impact voters’ distrust of the political party, which increased their relationship dissolution intentions. Implications for strategic communication and political communication are discussed.