Yes, it does. Thank you.
You've written a number of papers that are germane to what we're discussing today. One that you co-authored with John Matsusaka twelve years ago, in 2004, described how voters can be grouped into roughly three categories. I'll quote from it and then ask you for a comment on a concern that occurs to me.
You wrote:
The data showed respondents sorting themselves into three categories. The first category contained voters who knew neither the answers to detailed questions about the propositions nor the insurance industry's preferences.
This is in reference, parenthetically, to a referendum on changes to the insurance industry.
The second category contained “model citizens”—voters who consistently gave correct answers to detailed questions about the initiatives and who knew the insurance industry's preferences. The third category contained respondents who could not answer questions about the propositions' details but, like the model citizens, knew the insurance industry's preferences. This study's central finding is that voters in the second and third categories voted in very similar ways, whereas voters in the first category voted quite differently.
I think the evidence is convincing that well-informed voters vote in accordance with what could be regarded as their true interests, and that those who know to turn to authority figures they know and trust are likely to do likewise. Those are categories two and three.
As for category one, are these people sufficiently subject to being swayed by propaganda, or in some other way manipulated so that they ruin everything for everybody else in a typical referendum?