It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To

[billroper]

Well, that's a fascinating result.

They took a poll of Democrats and Republicans on education policy. They presented a "Republican" plan and a "Democratic" plan, giving a brief precis of each approach.

The Republicans massively favored the Republican plan. The Democrats massively favored the Democratic plan.

Which of the two plans was the Republican and Democratic plan was randomly selected for each participant in the poll. It wasn't the contents of the plan that determined whether someone favored it. It was just which party was supposed to have originated it.

Fascinating, I say.

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

And honestly not the least bit surprising to anyone who has been following politics for the last few years.

Of course, the thing the "beltway press" always seems to forget is that the vast majority of people *don't* follow politics. At all.

[billroper]

The sites I read are pretty aware of that last bit. Hence, the coinage of the phrase "low-information voter". :)

[madfilkentist]

Depressing, but not surprising.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

My sentiments exactly. :(

[patoadam]

Yup. See also:

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/events/MPrior.pdf
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19080.pdf

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Like the others, I'm not surprised. Depressed, but not surprised.

One thing I'd be interested in knowing is: Which, if either, side was less swayed by the label? I've read the numbers four times, and tried to put together a grid, but I'm failing.