Ideological labels derive their power from emotional evaluation when cognitive content is thin

Evidence

Individuals may vary, however, in the degree to which they derive their evaluations of ideological labels from cognitive sources such as issue preferences or emotional sources such as political symbols. For some members of the electorate, ideological labels may hold substantial cognitive meaning which complements that derived from various symbols, so that the two sources interact in a consistent fashion to produce the affect associated with the label. … Alternatively, lacking issue-oriented information about ideological labels, other individuals are expected to base their evaluations largely on the affective relationship of the label with other political symbols. In both cases, people may attach significant symbolic meaning to ideological labels, and although the sources of the meaning differ, its impact on self-identification, and subsequently behavior, may not. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2005

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to political psychology work on issue voting vs. symbolic/affective politics, e.g., Sears’ symbolic politics theory and the general literature on heuristics and low-information rationality. — connects to: Emotion gives psychopolitics efficient access below conscious reflection; Branding analysis of terrorism as sympathy enforces a period of demanded non-thinking — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1431
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2005