American liberals and conservatives have different cognitive styles, but (mostly) respond the same to party cues
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: How do people with different political ideologies process political information? Party cues are an effect where people are more likely to support a policy position if they learn their party also supports it, shifting their judgement in accordance with cues from their inparty and against their outparty. This effect has been at the center of the debate over the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives, with some scholars suggesting that differences in cognitive styles between liberals and conservatives (e.g., rigidity, cognitive reflection) should result in differences in party cue susceptibility. We advance this debate by measuring rigid cognitive styles and applying a stimuli sampling approach to party cues across four preregistered experiments (N’s per study > 1200). We found convincing evidence for ideological symmetries in party cues in quota matched samples of Americans (Studies 1 & 2). In Studies 3 and 4, across four measures of ideology and three self-report measures of cognitive rigidity, we found ideological differences in self-reported rigidity in line with previous research. In Study 3, a convenience sample, we found that conservatives were more likely to follow party cues. However, Study 4, using a quota matched sample, found no ideological differences in cue susceptibility, except with respect to right-wing authoritarianism. Exploratory analyses found that when one group has greater prior awareness or stronger initial views on a topic, they show smaller cueing effects. We conclude that while liberals and conservatives differ in cognitive style, they largely share similar cognitive processes for interpreting and integrating political information.
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,220
OpenAlex ID: W7160667359
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