The Effects of Candidate’s Ethnic Source Cue and Party Affiliation on Hispanic Voters’ Homophily Perceptions and Voting Intent

Because of the rapid demographic shifts in the United States (US), it is vital to examine how voters of different ethnic backgrounds perceive the ethnic source cue of a candidate in political advertising and how such perceptions influence voting behaviour. We used a post-test-only experiment to investigate the effects of candidate’s ethnic source cue and party affiliation on voters’ homophily perceptions and voting intent. A total of 335 college students from a large southwestern university in the US were recruited to take part in a post-test-only experiment. Results from multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) found that candidate’s ethnic source cue and party affiliation have significant main effects on voters’ homophily perceptions and voting intent. The moderating effects of voters’ own ethnicity, party identification and gender were also found to have statistically significant effects on voters’ homophily perceptions and voting intent. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.