Measuring Political Attitudes with Word Association

Abstract This paper advances the use of Word Association Tests (WATs), where respondents are presented with a series of cue words and asked to provide other words that come to mind as quickly as possible. Compared to standard approaches, WATs more directly map to psychologists’ understanding of the human mind. The paper develops and demonstrates the utility of word association through an analysis of Chinese citizens’ attitudes toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Empirically, we show how the collective “mental map” of the population tends to reflect regime narratives. Citizens who are CCP members and more educated are more likely to reproduce regime language. The paper provides a how-to guide for other political science researchers seeking to use word association.