Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science

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The study of electoral behavior occupys a prominent place in research on American political behavior. However, very little attention has been directed toward assessing the role an individual's own views play in assessing a candidate's position, when the candidate has not made that position clear. This Doctoral Dissertation Research project provides support for an investigation of the extent to which individuals project their own political views onto candidates who resort to generalities and inconsistent statements in their campaign messages. Using an experimental design framework, this research examines the relationship between the ambiguity of candidate issue positions and individual projections. Do people project their own views onto an ambiguous candidate? If so, what mechanism underlies this process? And does this mechanism suggest that candidates can garner more favorable images by being ambiguous? The answers to these questions will contribute to our understanding of electoral politics, as more explicit links will be drawn between voter evaluations and candidate qualities. In particular, this research will help delineate (a) the extent to and conditions under which voters will project their own views onto a candidate, and (b) the extent to which a candidate can manage his/her impression among voters by being ambiguous about his/her policy positions.