Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Political Information and Informed Voting

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Democracy depends in part on an informed citizenry voting for leaders to govern them. Yet what incentives do citizens have to invest in gathering information about politics--in particular, about an election on the horizon? What incentives and disincentives do citizens face when it comes time to vote? These two fundamental questions lay the basis for a third: How do the costs of voting affect incentives to invest in information? This project sheds new light on these questions by conducting field experiments during the 2011 San Francisco Municipal Election. A recent model predicts that increasing incentives to participate will increase aggregate information and informed voting, but will not increase uninformed voting. The effect is strongest when the cost of information is low. This project features an experimental design that will test the effect of participation costs on incentives to invest in political information. Whereas most mobilization studies focus exclusively on turnout effects, this experiment integrates a mobilization study with a panel survey design, to compare information acquisition in the treatment and control populations over the course of the electoral campaign. One treatment will reduce the cost of voting by helping subjects register to vote, locate polling places, and become aware of the options for early voting and absentee voting. Another treatment will increase the cost of abstention by informing subjects that voter turnout records are observable and will be documented. In addition, the researcher includes experimental treatments that integrate varying access to low-cost information, in order to identify the effect of participation costs in varying information environments. The information treatment enables a direct test of whether the cost of voting or the cost of information is most responsible for discouraging informed voting. The panel survey design also enables a unique opportunity to isolate other effects of participation, such as changes in partisanship, trust in government, and efficacy. The research will not only contribute to the theoretical literature on the relationship between information and voting but will also be of interest to policy makers. Does more participation mean less informed participation? Is there a way to increase participation without decreasing the information quality in the active electorate? How can electoral policy motivate an increase in informed voters? At the very least, this study will increase political information and participation among the subjects in the experiments, a small group of young citizens. At the most, it will help identify the best methods by which underrepresented groups can be recruited into the political process, so that their voices will be both informed and included.