Whom to trust and when? Party message perception in multiparty systems

Abstract

Voters follow their in-group party no matter what they are talking about. But what if reality is more nuanced? In this study, I ask how the perception of party signals works in multiparty systems and whether voters’ trust in the communication medium matters. Thus, I combine party perception research with literature on the influence of trust in different channels to analyse the effects on agreement with a statement and its credibility. Using a survey experiment in Germany, I examine the extent to which the perception of party statements changes when the respective party label and the communication medium change. I find that higher trust in the medium has a positive effect on the perception of the credibility of a party message. Furthermore, a dichotomous in-group vs. out-group divide does not reflect the complexity of a multiparty system. The results have implications for the effects of party communication and voter polarization.