Optimism about Elections: Dissonance Reduction at the Ballot Box

This field experiment investigated the effects of the act of voting itself on voters' attitudes in the 1984 presidential election. The subjects were 139 voters who were interviewed either on entering or immediately on departing the polling place. They responded to questions concerning the chanc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political psychology 1988-03, Vol.9 (1), p.101-107
Main Authors: Regan, Dennis T., Kilduff, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior. Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
CHOICE, IN ANY CONTEXT
Cognitive dissonance
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Handbooks
Leaves
Optimism
POLITICAL AND POWER PROCESS
POLITICAL BEHAVIOR
Political candidates
Political psychology
Presidential candidates
Presidential elections
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social psychology
UNITED STATES, 1945 TO PRESENT
VOTING
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Summary:This field experiment investigated the effects of the act of voting itself on voters' attitudes in the 1984 presidential election. The subjects were 139 voters who were interviewed either on entering or immediately on departing the polling place. They responded to questions concerning the chances of their candidates being elected president, the outcome of the presidential vote locally, their perceived closeness to their candidates on the issues, and to a non-political question (concerning the beauty of the fall foliage) designed to detect any generalized mood changes as a result of voting. The results showed that people were significantly more confident of their candidates' chances after voting than before, even controlling for any generalized optimism (p < .02). Voting for a presidential candidate had an effect only on expectations concerning the outcome of the race for the presidency, and not on seemingly related questions. The experiment replicates and clarifies previous findings on the effects of post-decision dissonance on attitudes in natural settings.
ISSN:0162-895X
1467-9221
DOI:10.2307/3791319