“Revisiting Opinion Constraint: A New Ecological Approach and the Impact of Party Communication”

ESPOL-Lab conferences available in person and online!

Every year, ESPOL-Lab organises political science conferences. Free access to members of the Catholic University of Lille, and on registration for outsiders and to follow online.

Abstract

Opinion constraint among voters has long been studied in the literature, with a heated debate over its methodological configuration, often leading to contrasting and mixed evidence. A new ecological approach suggests moving away from predefined ideological categories and instead relying on a novel measure that assesses consistency by comparing voters’ policy preferences to those of their most preferred political party. The first part of the presentation introduces this new approach, highlighting its advantages over traditional methods. The second part explores the determinants of opinion constraint, focusing on the effect of party communication, particularly negative and uncivil language. The findings suggest that such communication styles weaken opinion constraint, underscoring the importance of both the content and quality of political messaging.