Will University Students Agree with Political Opinions Along Party Lines?

Abstract

Political trust has been shown to affect a variety of actions in American politics, such as determining a person’s potential to vote, but how far does trust in one’s party and partisanship go? The effect that trust in one’s party has in leading a person to incongruent political messages is not fully understood. Would someone with a low trust in their favored political party be less likely to trust an individual candidate? Will someone who trusts a particular candidate be more likely to forego the ideals of their party in favor of that candidate? For example, if someone describes themselves as left-wing and see a left-wing quote, they may agree with it. However, would that same person disagree if the quote were attributed to a figure they didn’t like, such as a prominent right-wing figure?