Procesy samoregulacji w formowaniu wrażeń o politykach: derywacja i racjonalizacja

Wojciech Cwalina

Abstract

The article discusses the importance of self-regulation processes for citizen’s impression formation of politicians. Two types of processes which may occur while making evaluation of politician – derivation and rationalization – were contrasted. Derivation is defined as a process during which voting decisions are a consequence of individual evaluations of particular pieces of information about the candidate and his or her qualities. Rationalization assumes that the choice of a candidate is based on the voter’s general, overall evaluation. Two experiments was conducted. The results suggest that in their evaluation of the candidates, voters use both derivation and rationalization. However, the main determinant of a choice of candidate is the general, overall evaluation. The elements connected with the evaluation of a candidate’s image have less direct influence. In addition, the processes of forming evaluation depend on citizen’s needs and goals. She/he switches from more laborious ways of evaluating to less laborious ones and the other way round.