Can Cognitive Dissonance Theory Explain Action Induced Changes in Political Preferences?

Abstract

We present the results of a novel experiment investigating how participation in the electoral process can causally change political preference via cognitive dissonance theory. We present a novel experimental design, which complements the existing empirical literature, isolating the net effect of cognitive dissonance on preference changes. Our results suggest that cognitive dissonance created by expressing support for a losing candidate causally led participants to align their preferences with that of the supported candidate more closely. Our results, however, also uncovered a strong dependency of such preferences changes on the outcome of the election. When supported candidates won the election, no preference change was observed. Although more research is needed, our results may be an indication that previous studies overestimated the cognitive dissonance effect on preference changes.

Keywords: political participation, political support, political preferences, cognitive dissonance, online experiment

JEL Classification: C910, D720, D910