This study explores the concept of prominence as a candidate trait, understood as the perceived worthiness of attention candidates elicit from regular citizens in the context of low information elections. It proposes two dimensions of candidate prominence, political and public, operationalized as having held high visibility roles within the party and having social influence through social media presence. Employing a conjoint analysis experimental design, the study tests whether political and public prominence serve as heuristic mechanisms in low-information electoral settings by estimating conditional effects on respondents' self-assessed interest in politics, educational level and self-assessed ideological placement. The results contribute experimental evidence to support the hypothesis of differential heuristic choices by voters based on varying levels of perceived public and political prominence, conditional on voters' characteristics.

翻译：本研究探讨突出度这一候选特质概念，其被理解为在低信息选举背景下，普通公民认为候选人值得关注的感知程度。研究提出候选人的突出度包含政治突出度与公众突出度两个维度，分别以在党内担任高知名度职务和通过社交媒体影响力体现社会存在感作为操作性定义。通过采用联合分析实验设计，本研究在低信息选举环境中检验政治与公众突出度是否作为启发法机制发挥作用，通过估算受访者自评政治兴趣、受教育程度及自评意识形态定位的条件效应。实验结果支持假设：选民基于对公众与政治突出度的感知差异，会根据自身特征选择不同的启发式决策路径。