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Despite a recent resurgence of interest in the concept of group consciousness, relatively little attention has been devoted to the political impact of group identifications. Consequently, in this paper the effects of group identification on political perception and evaluation are investigated. Theoretically, a schematic approach is adopted in outlining the perceptual effects of group identifications. Empirically, data from the 1980 National Election Study are used to test some of the hypotheses derived from this schematic approach. The results from this analysis suggest that group identifications play an important role in defining the perceptual viewpoints that people bring to bear on politics; people identifying with different groups focus on different things and evaluate political issues from different perspectives.
Pamela Johnston Conover (Wed,) studied this question.