Assimilation and Contrast Effects in the 1972 Election

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Abstract
Longitudinal data from the 1972 election study of the Survey Research Center were analyzed to examine for possible displacement effects (assimi-lation and contrast) in estimations of the candidates'positions on 14 issues. Pervasive assimilation of one's preferred candidate occurred, and this appeared to be stronger than the contrast of one's nonpreferred candidate. The latter was deemed unreliable for Nixon voters placing McGovern and marginally reliable for McGovern voters placing Nixon. Displacement effects tended to be slightly larger before than after the election. Among the McGovern voters, those expecting him to win showed a greater change in displacement effects than those not expecting him to win. Among the Nixon supporters, the Republicans showed greater assimilation than the Demo-crats or Independents. Assimilation appeared to be directly associated with ambiguity while contrast tended to be inversely associated with ambiguity. People placing a preferred candidate tended to show less variance than people placing a nonpreferred candidate.

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