What Motivates People to Vote? The Role of Selfishness, Duty, and Social Motives When Voting

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3533309
AutoresValentina A Bali (0000-0002-0643-3590, Michigan State University, autor correspondente), Lindon J Robison (0000-0002-3433-8064, Michigan State University), Richard Winder (State Bar of Michigan, Lansing, USA), Richard E Winder
Ano2020
Volume10
Fascículo4
Data de publicação2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSAGE Open (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2158-2440 • E-ISSN: 2158-2440
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2158244020950376
OpenAlexW3092273159
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas76

This study assesses the relative importance and explanatory power of five fundamental psychological motives for voting. Using United States survey data, we analyze self-reports on the motives of selfishness, duty, altruism, belonging, and social approval in relation to turnout. These motives have precedents in the literature, but they have not yet been evaluated simultaneously. We find that altruism and duty are the most important reported motives for turnout accounting for more than 60% of the allocations; selfish motives account for only about 15%. Turnout behavior responds positively to the motives of duty, altruism, and belonging, but it is dampened by the motive of selfishness. Turning out to vote emerges as an activity largely shaped by an individual's social concerns and values

Duty · Economics · Microeconomics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Selfishness · Turnout · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Law · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology