The effect of place-based identity on preferences for descriptive localism in candidates


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Previous experimental studies of voters’ preferences for descriptive localism in candidates have omitted to evaluate the effect of a potentially decisive factor, voters’ own place-based identities. Here, I propose to do that, combining a vignette designed to prime voters’ attachment to their neighbourhood with a conjoint. I also address a second shortcoming in the experimental candidate evaluation literature: the conflating of some candidate localism cues, and a lack of variation in cues—typically focusing only on birthplace, distance of residence, and where the candidate studied—compared to other traits, such as education.