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Economic Behavior and the Partisan Perceptual Screen
Author(s): Mary C. McGrath
Source: Journal:Quarterly Journal of Political Science ISSN Print:1554-0626, ISSN Online:1554-0634 Publisher:Now Publishers Volume 11 Number 4, Pages: 21 (363-383) DOI: 10.1561/100.00015100 Keywords: Political economy;Political psychology;Political parties;Political science
Abstract:
Partisans report different perceptions from the same set of facts. According to the perceptual screen hypothesis, this difference arises because partisans perceive different realities.
An alternative hypothesis is that partisans take even fact-based questions as an opportunity to voice support for their team. In 2009, Gerber and Huber conducted the first behavioral test of
the perceptual screen hypothesis outside of the lab. I re-analyze Gerber and Hubers original data and collect new data from two additional U.S. elections. Gerber and Hubers finding of a
relationship between partisanship and economic behavior does not hold when observations from a single state-year (Texas in 1996) are excluded from their analysis. Out-of-sample replication
based on the two U.S. presidential elections since the original study similarly shows no evidence of an effect. Given these results, the balance of evidence tips toward the conclusion that
economic perceptions are not filtered through partisanship.
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