Do You See What I See? Perceptions of Party Differences and Voting Behavior

Bibliographic Data

ID6180189
AuthorsCraig Goodman (Texas Tech University), Gregg R Murray (0000-0002-3976-9365, Texas Tech University)
Year2007
Volume35
Issue6
Pages905-931
Publication date2007-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Politics Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1532-673X • E-ISSN: 1552-3373
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1532673x07303755
OpenAlexW1964436819
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited48

We approach the issues of partisanship and voting behavior by focusing specifically on a seldom-studied group—the substantial proportion of citizens who see little to no important differences between the major parties. Motivated by the heuristics and burgeoning behavioral economics literatures, we conclude that party cues help reduce uncertainty for voters. More specifically, for voters lacking these cues, we expect that there will be a bias toward the incumbent candidate or party, which is motivated by the desire to decrease the potential costs of postdecision regrets. Similarly, we expect that these individuals are likely to delay choosing between candidates and may abstain from voting altogether, which is driven by a shortage of justifications on which to base the decision. We develop measures of perceived party differences based on symbolic and operational differences using data from the American National Election Study and find significant support for our hypotheses in the context of presidential elections

Heuristics · Perception · Political science · Politics · Presidential election · Presidential system · Public relations · Voting · Voting behavior · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Psychology · Social Psychology

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