Questions : Given the information below, how necessary are political campaigns and how much importance do voters place on policy platforms if simply changing a party label can affect general support for the policy? Who are campaigns targeted toward? Party faithful? Independents? Be sure to include citations for any sources you use and ground your answer in facts using logic and reason to defend your position.
More than three-fourths of Americans support both stricter gun laws and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought here as children. Roughly the same number of Americans agree “that our differences are not so great that we cannot come together.”
A 2012 study by Carlee Beth Hawkins and Brian Nosek shows that labeling policies as “Democrat” or “Republican” can influence policy support, depending on the implicit bias of participants toward each party. A 2017 study by David Tannenbaum and colleagues finds that support for policy “nudges”—such as changing 401k retirement accounts to opt-out rather than opt-in—was heavily influenced by whether they were framed as supporting the goals of the Democratic or Republican party. This was true of regular U.S. citizens and for senior government leaders. Similarly, a 2018 study by Leaf Van Boven and colleagues finds that the majority of Republicans agree that climate change is happening—but their support for policy solutions declined when presented by Democrats.
In other words, people like policies proposed by members of their own in-group—and they don’t like ideas generated by out-groups.