Investigating Individual-Level Conflict Between Ideology and Issue Positions in the UK

When individuals describe their own ideology, how well does this accurately reflect policy preferences? Are individuals that see inconsistencies in their own ideology inclined to shift their ideological identity or policy preferences to reconcile these contradictions? My project aims to investigate the extent to which individuals' issue positions are (in)consistent with their own self-described ideology, and how this varies across individuals. I will also explore whether ideological inconsistencies track elite-level behaviour, and if individuals would be more likely to shift their issue opinions or their ideology where they are shown to be contradictory. I plan to complete this research using a quantitative analysis of the British Election Study (BES) as well as my own survey experiment.

This research will contribute to our understandings of ideological coherency among voters, as well as how this varies within the population by levels of political knowledge and partisanship. If levels of ideological coherency are low, this may have implications for the quality of democracy or the importance of political education. Additionally, by considering how ideological consistency tracks elite-level behaviour, this may give some insight into the impact of political messaging. Finally, this research may help us to understand electoral outcomes, as we consider how ideologically-conflicted individuals convert their positions and ideological identity into vote choices and party preferences. My project will also expand on previous research by looking at specifically individual-level consistency rather than at the country-level, and will seek to assess which issue positions particularly contradict with selfdescribed ideology, and whether the policy issues causing contradictions vary across the population.

The primary question this research will seek to address through an analysis of BES data is to what extent individuals in the UK hold contradictory issue positions and ideological identities. Once ideological inconsistency has been uncovered, the question remains as to how these coexist when individuals are required to make political decisions such as voting, or whether the inconsistencies themselves may in fact be shaped by inconsistencies at the elite-level. I will address this through an analysis of the internet panel of the British Election Study which covers multiple significant political events such as elections, referenda, and leadership changes. This analysis will explore the influence of elite-level politics on individual-level ideological shifts, and therefore potential shifts in ideological consistency, will become clear. I also plan to carry out a survey experiment to explore how individuals may shift their views when ideological inconsistencies are made explicitly clear, and this may demonstrate whether ideological labels or issue positions are of more importance to individuals if one is more easily moved to align with the other in order to achieve ideological consistency.