Cues and Heuristics on Capitol Hill: Network-based Shortcuts in Legislative Decision-Making

The member [of Congress] facing decisions outside his area of expertise is up against the fact that the congressional experts, those he agrees with and those he disagrees with, know a good deal more about the subject than he, they argue on a higher plane, and they debate assertions of fact he must accept or reject largely on faith, lacking the background and time to do thorough research himself. Such resources as he might expend do not take him far, and he is likely in the end to abandon his evaluation of the issue for an easier evaluation of the expert he chooses to follow. [This]... is the basis for the most practical solution to the problems of normal decision-making (Matthews and Stimson [1975], p. 49).