The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search
Informed voting is costly: research shows that voters use heuristics such as party identification and retrospection to make choices that approximate enlightened decision-making. Most of this work, however, focuses on high-information races and ignores elections in which these cues are often unavaila...
| Päätekijät: | , |
|---|---|
| Aineistotyyppi: | Journal article |
| Julkaistu: |
Springer US
2018
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| _version_ | 1826266308579164160 |
|---|---|
| author | Bernhard, R Freeder, S |
| author_facet | Bernhard, R Freeder, S |
| author_sort | Bernhard, R |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Informed voting is costly: research shows that voters use heuristics such as party identification and retrospection to make choices that approximate enlightened decision-making. Most of this work, however, focuses on high-information races and ignores elections in which these cues are often unavailable (e.g. primary, local). In these cases, citizens are on their own to search for quality information and evaluate it efficiently. To assess how voters navigate this situation, we field three survey experiments asking respondents what information they want before voting. We evaluate respondents on their ability to both acquire and utilize information in a way that improves their chances of voting for quality candidates, and how this varies by the sophistication of respondents and the offices sought by candidates. We find strong evidence that voters use “deal-breakers” to quickly eliminate undesirable candidates; however, the politically unsophisticated rely on unverifiable, vague, and irrelevant search considerations. Moreover, less sophisticated voters also rely on more personalistic considerations. The findings suggest that voters’ search strategies may be ineffective at identifying the best candidates for office, especially at the local level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:36:55Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:32f3d167-aa35-4bb0-bb33-dbd2965985f9 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:36:55Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Springer US |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:32f3d167-aa35-4bb0-bb33-dbd2965985f92022-03-26T13:17:14ZThe more you know: voter heuristics and the information searchJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:32f3d167-aa35-4bb0-bb33-dbd2965985f9Symplectic Elements at OxfordSpringer US2018Bernhard, RFreeder, SInformed voting is costly: research shows that voters use heuristics such as party identification and retrospection to make choices that approximate enlightened decision-making. Most of this work, however, focuses on high-information races and ignores elections in which these cues are often unavailable (e.g. primary, local). In these cases, citizens are on their own to search for quality information and evaluate it efficiently. To assess how voters navigate this situation, we field three survey experiments asking respondents what information they want before voting. We evaluate respondents on their ability to both acquire and utilize information in a way that improves their chances of voting for quality candidates, and how this varies by the sophistication of respondents and the offices sought by candidates. We find strong evidence that voters use “deal-breakers” to quickly eliminate undesirable candidates; however, the politically unsophisticated rely on unverifiable, vague, and irrelevant search considerations. Moreover, less sophisticated voters also rely on more personalistic considerations. The findings suggest that voters’ search strategies may be ineffective at identifying the best candidates for office, especially at the local level. |
| spellingShingle | Bernhard, R Freeder, S The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search |
| title | The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search |
| title_full | The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search |
| title_fullStr | The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search |
| title_full_unstemmed | The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search |
| title_short | The more you know: voter heuristics and the information search |
| title_sort | more you know voter heuristics and the information search |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bernhardr themoreyouknowvoterheuristicsandtheinformationsearch AT freeders themoreyouknowvoterheuristicsandtheinformationsearch AT bernhardr moreyouknowvoterheuristicsandtheinformationsearch AT freeders moreyouknowvoterheuristicsandtheinformationsearch |