Voting behavior

Voting behavior refers to how people decide how to vote.[1] This decision is shaped by a complex interplay between an individual voter's attitudes as well as social factors.[1] Voter attitudes include characteristics such as ideological predisposition, party identity, degree of satisfaction with the existing government, public policy leanings, and feelings about a candidate's personality traits.[1] Social factors include race, religion and degree of religiosity, social and economic class, educational level, regional characteristics, and gender.[1] The degree to which a person identifies with a political party influences voting behavior,[2] as does social identity.[3] Voter decision-making is not a purely rational endeavor but rather is profoundly influenced by personal and social biases and deeply held beliefs[4] as well as characteristics such as personality, memory, emotions, and other psychological factors.[5][6] Voting advice applications[7] and avoidance of wasted votes through strategic voting[8] can impact voting behavior.

  1. ^ a b c d "Voting Behavior". www.icpsr.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  2. ^ "How Identity Shapes Voting Behavior". The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  3. ^ Jenke, Libby; Huettel, Scott A. (November 2016). "Issues or Identity? Cognitive Foundations of Voter Choice". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 20 (11): 794–804. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.013. ISSN 1364-6613. PMC 5120865. PMID 27769726.
  4. ^ Caplan, B. (2007). The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies - New Edition (REV-Revised). Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvcm4gf2
  5. ^ Healy, Andrew J.; Malhotra, Neil; Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung (2010-07-06). "Irrelevant events affect voters' evaluations of government performance". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (29): 12804–12809. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10712804H. doi:10.1073/pnas.1007420107. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2919954. PMID 20615955.
  6. ^ Beck, PA, et al. (2002). The social calculus of voting: Interpersonal, media, and organizational influences on presidential choices. Am Polit Sci Rev 96 (1): 57–73.
  7. ^ Garzia, Diego; Marschall, Stefan (2016). "Research on Voting Advice Applications: State of the Art and Future Directions". Policy & Internet. 8 (4): 376–390. doi:10.1002/poi3.140. hdl:1814/45127.
  8. ^ Alvarez, R. Michael; Nagler, Jonathan (2000). "A New Approach for Modelling Strategic Voting in Multiparty Elections". British Journal of Political Science. 30: 57–75. doi:10.1017/S000712340000003X. S2CID 18214677.