Coding political texts might reflect coders' prior beliefs about parties.
Coders & Methods
Ten coders evaluated 200 immigration-related statements from election manifestos. Party affiliations were randomly assigned, including a control group without cues.
Key Findings
- Coders showed pro-immigration bias for Green Party texts • Anti-immigration leanings increased with populist radical right labels • No effects found for mainstream center-left or center-right parties
Why It Matters
These results suggest coders use party identity as a heuristic when faced with ambiguous policy statements, revealing an implicit layer to political text coding that goes beyond objective analysis.
