Challenging by cueing? An investigation of party and leader cueing effects across mainstream and challenger party voters

Abstract

This project includes all the necessary data and script files for replicating the analysis presented in an upcoming article in Political Behavior, title: "Challenging by cueing? An investigation of party and leader cueing effects across mainstream and challenger party voters". This research examines how party and leader cues impact voters from mainstream and challenger parties, with a focus on how expressive partisanship (partisan social identities) and instrumental partisanship (party competence evaluations) moderate these effects. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in Spain during a period of party system restructuring, we discover similar cueing effects across party and leader cues, particularly among voters of both mainstream and challenger parties. Moreover, we find that cueing effects for mainstream party voters involve a combination of expressive and instrumental reasoning, while for new challenger party voters, these effects are primarily driven by perceptions of party competence reputation. These findings challenge the notion that familiarity and time enhance cueing effects, diverging from socio-psychological approaches that emphasize the emotional and identity components of partisan identities in strengthening cueing effects.