  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.
