How do migrants acquire party attachments?

Party identification is one of the most important aspects of political socialization and integration into the political system. However, recent newcomers to a political system may not pick up party identification by the time they enter the electorate. In this project, we integrate prior research on Voting Aid Applications to explore how political information shapes partisan attitudes. In an online survey (starting in Canada but eventually scaling up cross nationally), we invite immigrants to converse with an AI chatbot about policy and politics. By conversing with the chatbot, we explore whether respondents learn which parties are closest to their views and closest to their preferred party in their country of origin. 

1. How do newcomers develop partisan identification? 
   1. What are the effects of previous party ID on acquisition of new party ID?
2. Which theories of partisan formation are most powerful in understanding the acquisition of party identity among Canadian newcomers? 
3. How can AI chatbots be used to study social and partisan identity? 

Online, placebo-controlled survey experiment, large language models.

• Canadian Election Study (external link)  (Daniel Rubenson, Co-PI)
• Consortium and Electoral Democracy (external link)  (Daniel Rubenson, Co-PI)

The team has carried out a pilot study and is getting ready to present preliminary findings from it at upcoming international conferences.

Immigration; partisanship; political parties; artificial intelligence; Canada; large language models