6 - Anchor Preferences and Derivative Preferences

Summary

Anchor preferences represent the political identify that people adopt. They tend to anchor on a party, an ideology, or a candidate to form their political identity. Most public policy preferences people hold are a derivative of their anchor preferences. They adopt the policy preferences of their anchors to minimize cognitive dissonance, and to economize on the gathering of information that will have no instrumental value to them anyway. Many policy issues are complex, with compelling arguments for different policy positions. Choosing an anchor for their political identity and then deriving policy preferences from those offered by the anchor maximizes the utility that people get from their expressive preferences. The masses adopt the policy preferences of the elite – of those on whom they anchor. They follow their leaders.