Research Article
When political expertise moderates the impact of scandals on young adults' judgments of politicians
Isabelle Régner,
Valérie Le Floch,
Corresponding Author
Isabelle Régner
University of Toulouse, France
Université Toulouse Le Mirail, Laboratoire Dynamiques Sociocognitives et Vie Politique, Maison de la Recherche, 5 allées Antonio-Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.Search for more papers by this authorIsabelle Régner,
Valérie Le Floch,
Corresponding Author
Isabelle Régner
University of Toulouse, France
Université Toulouse Le Mirail, Laboratoire Dynamiques Sociocognitives et Vie Politique, Maison de la Recherche, 5 allées Antonio-Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This short note investigated how expertise in a political scandal moderates whether the activation of this scandal produces assimilation in the evaluation of politicians in general and contrast in the evaluation of specific politicians. It was hypothesized that participants with a rich knowledge about the scandal would display the assimilation and contrast effects whereas those with a poorer knowledge would not. Results tended to support this prediction, suggesting that the impact on judgment of a specific context depends on the amount of knowledge participants possess about this context. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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