Political Perception Dimensions Based on Negative Similarities

Abstract

The purpose was to study (a) the relationship between positive and negative similarity estimations for political stimuli and (b) the generality of dimensions of political perception across methods and populations. One sample of 199 high-school students gave estimates of the degree of positive similarity between all pairs of 8 Swedish political parties on an 11-step scale. Another sample of 148 high-school students provided the same type of data with the exception that they were also allowed to express negative similarities when the stimuli were perceived as opposite to each other. Contrary to the results from a previous study, the relationship between positive and negative similarities was linear, and the similarity distributions did not differ as expected. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are discussed. In accordance with expectations, the multidimensional scaling solution based on negative similarities was more parsimonious. Dimensions obtained were the same as those in an earlier study, which supports the generalizability of these dimensions of political perception.