Deficit Attention Disorder: Partisanship, Issue Importance and Concern About Government Overspending.

ABSTRACT: Political action and electoral behavior often stem from a conviction that an issue is important. Yet despite a growing literature on partisan bias, it remains unclear whether partisan attachment also affects the perceived importance of various issues. We propose a theory of partisan-motivated issue attention (PMIA), wherein citizens satisfy partisan instincts by shifting the perceived importance of an issue. We apply our theory to an issue involving a fundamental tool of the federal government-the power to deficit-spend-and test the hypothesis that partisans' concern about government overspending significantly changes depending on which party presides over deficit-spending. Leveraging pre-registered experimental and observational studies, we find strong support for this hypothesis among bo

SUBMITTER: Kane JV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8889874 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature