Betting on the underdog: the influence of social networks on vote choice

People are commonly expected not to waste their vote on parties with small probabilities of being elected. Yet, many end up voting for underdogs. We argue that voters gauge the popular support for their preferred party from their social networks. When social networks function as echo chambers, a fea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political science research and methods 2022-01, Vol.10 (1), p.198-205
Main Authors: Fredén, Annika, Rheault, Ludovic, Indridason, Indridi H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elections
elections and campaigns
Equilibrium
experimental research
Experiments
Function
Homogeneity
Information sources
Political behavior
Political parties
Political Science
Preferences
Public opinion
Research Note
Social networks
Statsvetenskap
Voter behavior
Voting
voting behavior
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Summary:People are commonly expected not to waste their vote on parties with small probabilities of being elected. Yet, many end up voting for underdogs. We argue that voters gauge the popular support for their preferred party from their social networks. When social networks function as echo chambers, a feature observed in real-life networks, voters overestimate underdogs’ chances of winning. We conduct voting experiments in which some treatment groups receive signals from a simulated network. We compare the effect of networks with a high degree of homogeneity against random networks. We find that homophilic networks increase the level of support for underdogs, which provides evidence to back up anecdotal claims that echo chambers foster the development of fringe parties.
ISSN:2049-8470
2049-8489
2049-8489
DOI:10.1017/psrm.2020.21