Finding Comrades – which (non-policy) group based appeals can parties employ to improve their association with the working class
How can parties influence their associations with social groups? The impact of differential policy platforms on group structured voting behaviour is well recognised. Increasingly, however, scholars are also examining the effect of parties’ rank and file make-up as well as that of direct rhetorical group appeals on such associations. Some moreover argue that attachments to parties are sticky heuristics, based on a running tally of both past and present party performance. In light of these predictions I propose a conjoint experimental study of class voting in the UK. Class competition has ceased to be the dominant cleavage in Western Europe. One proposed mechanism for this depoliticisation are decreasing appeals of mainstream left parties to the working class. But how should we best conceptualise Labour’s working class appeal? In a factorial experimental design Robison et al. (2021) find that candidates sending rhetorical group appeals attract significantly higher support among working class respondents in the US and Denmark. While they compare these effects to another treatment through policy appeals, however, they do not directly test for the individual effect of rhetorical and policy appeals when combined and omit descriptive strategies altogether. As such it remains unclear if the different group based appeals map on different dimensions of group representation or act as signals for the same (policy-based) dimension. My conjoint experiment on working class group appeals in the UK thus not only seeks to replicate Robison et al. (2021)’s results in a different country context, but also to explicitly identify independent effects of different group based appeals.
Date:
30 October 2024, 14:00 (Wednesday, 3rd week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue:
Centre for Experimental Social Sciences, George Street OX1 2AA
Venue Details:
This is an in-person event that is open to the public. Interested individuals will need to come to the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences located in George Street Mews and a member of the staff will grant you access to the building.
Speaker:
Tom Pruchnow (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Nuffield College
Organiser:
Noah Bacine (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
Noah.Bacine@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Noah Bacine (University of Oxford)
Part of:
CESS Colloquium Series
Booking required?:
Recommended
Booking email:
Noah.Bacine@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Cost:
N/A
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Noah Bacine
