THE PERCEPTION OF POLITICIANS AND POLITICAL ISSUES : A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING APPROACH

The multidimensional scaling (MDS) of both attitude statements and political candidates in the same multidimensional space was considered to have several ramifications. First, the position of the attitude statements would explicate the nature of the factorial structure of politicians; second, the underlying dimensions would demonstrate whether candidates are perceived in terms of relevant political dimensions. Third, the scaling would reveal the extent of individual differences, especially those based on political affiliation; and last, as a descriptive tool the scaling is of interest in its own right. One hundred fifteen subjects were recruited from various sources, including local campus political clubs. Tucker's (1972) three-mode model of MDS was used to analyze the similarity judgments of these subjects. Results indicated that politicians are perceived in terms of the relevant issues, and that Republicans and Democrats differ markedly in their perception of the political arena. The present experimental paradigm was suggested as a potentially useful method for a number of research problems.