Cues in Context: Analyzing the Heuristics of Referendum Voting with an Internet Survey Experiment

Internet surveys provide highly cost‐effective opportunities for analysts to conduct experimental research. Unlike small‐N laboratory experiments with unrepresentative groups, subjects in internet experiments can be large representative samples of populations of interest. This paper illustrates the potential of internet survey experiments by presenting the results of research conducted in a study of factors that affect political choice in major referendums. The experiment, conducted in the United States at the time of the 2006 mid‐term elections, was designed to investigate the effects of cues provided by parties and their leaders on voting in a hypothetical national referendum to deny public services to illegal immigrants. Analyses indicate that these cues have conditional effects. Operating in a context where many voters have partisan identifications and dispositions towards message‐senders, party and leader cues influence voting net of other factors that drive political choice.