La aplicación de los métodos experimentales en el estudio de los atajos informativos en México

Abstract

Political scientists are increasingly using experiments to study important topics, in large partbecause this methodology allows the researcher more control in specifying relationships and testingcausation. The application of experimental methods to questions of political opinions and behavioris still somewhat limited outside the realm of U.S. politics, and in particular within the realm of Mexicanpolitics. In this note, we first present an overview of the strengths, and weaknesses, of experimentalresearch for the study of political behavior. We then present an experimental study conductedin the summer of 2004, using college students as research subjects, to illustrate the benefits of themethod for investigating one particular research topic within Mexican politics: the utility of partylabels as heuristic aids for opinion formation and expression. We find evidence that party labels, inparticular the PRI, influence individuals policy preferences and, further, that these effects are morepronounced for more difficult issues. We find only limited evidence that party identification conditionsthe usefulness of the cues. We hope that our study and discussion convincingly demonstrate thatexperimental methods are appropriate and useful for the study of Mexican political behavior.