Group heuristics and omnibus policies: how benefits to the “average American” explain public support for the Farm Bill

Abstract Omnibus bills often emerge from cross-party collaboration, bundling diverse programs to serve different constituencies. How people evaluate these complex policies remains an open question. We argue that individuals rely on an average-person heuristic, a group-based cognitive shortcut that simplifies policy evaluation by assessing broad distributive benefits. Analyzing multiple waves of survey data on the Farm Bill, a hallmark of American omnibus legislation, we find that perceptions of benefits to the “average American” are strongly and consistently associated with support for the policy package. These effects persist over time and when accounting for dominant alternative explanations, including racial resentment and self-interest. This paper is among the first to investigate public support for omnibus policies, presenting the average person as a relevant group-based heuristic that shapes opinion in complex, redistributive contexts.