On Hearing and Interpreting Political Messages: A Cautionary Tale of Citizen Cue-Taking

Abstract

Recent research documents the widespread use of heuristics, especially a reliance on elite cues among citizens. Scholars have celebrated this mode of decision making as rational and effective. Using experimental survey data collected from white and African-American respondents, we also identify what appears to be a strong influence of elite messages on mass political judgments, but only among our black respondents. More importantly, the data reveal some of the perils of cue-taking. Although rational, this heuristic may not always be effective.