Don’t expect me to vote for you just because I like you, even if you do make me feel warm inside: a comparison of the validity of non-ipsative measures of party support

van der Eijk, Cees; Marsh, Michael

Abstract

The inclusion of non-ipsative measures of party preference (in essence ratings for each of the parties of a political system) has become established practice in mass surveys
conducted for election studies. They exist in different forms, known as thermometer ratings or feeling scores, likes and dislikes scores, or support propensities. Usually only one of these is included in a single survey, which makes it difficult to assess the relative merits of each. The questionnaire of the Irish National Election Study 2002 (INES2002) contained three different batteries of non-ipsative party preferences. This paper investigates some of the properties of these different indicators. We focus in particular on two phenomena. First, the relationship between non-ipsative preferences and the choices
actually made on the ballot. In Ireland this relationship is more revealing than in most other countries owing to the electoral system (STV) which allows voters to cast multiple
ordered votes for candidates from different parties. Second, we investigate the latent structure of each of the batteries of party preferences and the relationships between them.

We conclude that the three instruments are not interchangeable, that they measure different orientations, and that one –the propensity to vote for a party– is by far preferable if the purpose of the study is the explanation of voters’ actual choice behaviour. This
finding has important ramifications for the design of election study questionnaires.

Citation

van der Eijk, C., & Marsh, M. Don’t expect me to vote for you just because I like you, even if you do make me feel warm inside: a comparison of the validity of non-ipsative measures of party support. Presented at Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, 29 August - 1 September 2007

• Conference Name: Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, 29 August - 1 September 2007
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: validation; survey measurement; party preferences; non-ipsative preferences; thermometer ratings; like-dislike preference items; propensity to vote preference items; ptv
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/704212