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Abstract:
In this article we propose a political psychology model of how people make use of political information. Using survey data, we apply this model to the case of three referendums on European policy held in Switzerland between 1992 and 2001. We analyse how public opinion was formed in these ballots, focusing on the use of ‘heuristics’ among different groups of voters. In general, it appears that affective involvement toward the ballot issues increases the use of all types of heuristics considered in this study, whether relatively ‘simple’ (trust in government, general attitude toward EU membership) or more ‘complex’ (ideology). By contrast, cognitive involvement (i.e. background knowledge of issues) fosters the use of ideological heuristics only. In addition, some huge differences between the three ballots are pointed out and explained in terms of how intensively different categories of actors took part in the referendum campaigns. We also address a number of questions that were left unanswered in the analysis of results, and try to take steps toward understanding the puzzles arising from our empirical model.
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