Investigating Individual-Level Conflict Between Ideology and Issue Positions in the UK

当个人描述自己的意识形态时，这在多大程度上准确地反映了政策偏好？当人们发现自己的意识形态不一致时，他们是否会倾向于改变自己的意识形态身份或政策偏好来调和这些矛盾？我的项目旨在调查个人的问题立场在多大程度上与他们自己描述的意识形态一致，以及这在个人之间的差异。我还将探讨意识形态的不一致性是否会影响精英阶层的行为，以及个人是否更有可能在矛盾的地方改变他们的问题观点或意识形态。本研究将通过对英国选举研究（BES）的定量分析和本人的调查实验来完成，有助于理解选民的意识形态一致性，以及不同政治知识水平和党派倾向的选民意识形态一致性的差异。如果意识形态的一致性很低，这可能会对民主的质量或政治教育的重要性产生影响。此外，通过考虑意识形态的一致性如何跟踪精英阶层的行为，这可能会让人们对政治信息的影响有一些了解。最后，这项研究可能有助于我们了解选举结果，因为我们考虑意识形态冲突的个人如何将他们的立场和意识形态身份转化为投票选择和政党偏好。我的项目还将通过专门研究个人层面的一致性而不是国家层面的一致性来扩展以前的研究，并将寻求评估哪些问题立场与自我描述的意识形态特别矛盾，以及引起矛盾的政策问题是否因人口而异。这项研究将通过对BES数据的分析来寻求解决的主要问题是，英国的个人在多大程度上持有矛盾问题立场和意识形态认同。一旦意识形态的不一致被发现，问题仍然是当个人被要求做出政治决定，如投票时，这些不一致是如何共存的，或者不一致本身实际上是否可能是由精英阶层的不一致造成的。我将通过分析英国选举研究的互联网小组来解决这个问题，该研究涵盖了选举，公投和领导层更迭等多个重大政治事件。这一分析将探讨精英层面的政治对个人层面的意识形态转变的影响，因此意识形态一致性的潜在转变将变得清晰。我还计划进行一项调查实验，探讨当意识形态的不一致性被明确地阐明时，个人如何改变他们的观点，这可能表明，如果一个人更容易为了实现意识形态的一致性而与另一个人保持一致，那么意识形态标签或问题立场对个人来说是否更重要。

When individuals describe their own ideology, how well does this accurately reflect policy preferences? Are individuals that see inconsistencies in their own ideology inclined to shift their ideological identity or policy preferences to reconcile these contradictions? My project aims to investigate the extent to which individuals' issue positions are (in)consistent with their own self-described ideology, and how this varies across individuals. I will also explore whether ideological inconsistencies track elite-level behaviour, and if individuals would be more likely to shift their issue opinions or their ideology where they are shown to be contradictory. I plan to complete this research using a quantitative analysis of the British Election Study (BES) as well as my own survey experiment.This research will contribute to our understandings of ideological coherency among voters, as well as how this varies within the population by levels of political knowledge and partisanship. If levels of ideological coherency are low, this may have implications for the quality of democracy or the importance of political education. Additionally, by considering how ideological consistency tracks elite-level behaviour, this may give some insight into the impact of political messaging. Finally, this research may help us to understand electoral outcomes, as we consider how ideologically-conflicted individuals convert their positions and ideological identity into vote choices and party preferences. My project will also expand on previous research by looking at specifically individual-level consistency rather than at the country-level, and will seek to assess which issue positions particularly contradict with selfdescribed ideology, and whether the policy issues causing contradictions vary across the population.The primary question this research will seek to address through an analysis of BES data is to what extent individuals in the UK hold contradictory issue positions and ideological identities. Once ideological inconsistency has been uncovered, the question remains as to how these coexist when individuals are required to make political decisions such as voting, or whether the inconsistencies themselves may in fact be shaped by inconsistencies at the elite-level. I will address this through an analysis of the internet panel of the British Election Study which covers multiple significant political events such as elections, referenda, and leadership changes. This analysis will explore the influence of elite-level politics on individual-level ideological shifts, and therefore potential shifts in ideological consistency, will become clear. I also plan to carry out a survey experiment to explore how individuals may shift their views when ideological inconsistencies are made explicitly clear, and this may demonstrate whether ideological labels or issue positions are of more importance to individuals if one is more easily moved to align with the other in order to achieve ideological consistency.