Can Where People Vote Influence How They Vote? The Influence of Polling Location Type on Voting Behavior
Stanford GSB Research Paper No. 1926
40 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2006
Date Written: February 2006
Abstract
Can the type of polling place in which people vote (e.g. church, school, or firehouse) influence how they cast their ballot? Results of two studies suggest it can. A field study using Arizona's 2000 general election found that voters were more likely to support raising the state sales tax to support education if they voted in schools, as opposed to other types of polling locations. This effect persisted even when controlling for voters' political views, demographics, and unobservable characteristics of those individuals living near schools. A voting experiment extended these findings to other initiatives (i.e. stem cells) and a case in which people were randomly assigned to different environmental primes (i.e. church-related, school-related or generic building images). The present studies reveal that even in noisy, real-world environments, subtle environmental cues can influence decisions on issues of real consequence.
Keywords: Decision Making, Voting, Environmental Cues, Political Economy
JEL Classification: P16
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Identity, Dignity and Taboos: Beliefs as Assets
By Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole
-
Identity, Dignity and Taboos: Beliefs as Assets
By Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole
-
Social Identity and Preferences
By Daniel J. Benjamin, James J. Choi, ...
-
Social Identity and Preferences
By Daniel J. Benjamin, James J. Choi, ...
-
Categorical Cognition: A Psychological Model of Categories and Identification in Decision Making
-
The Conflicting Choices of Alternating Selves
By Robyn A. Leboeuf, Eldar Shafir, ...
-
Denial of Death and Economic Behavior
By Wojciech Kopczuk and Joel B. Slemrod
-
Identity, Trust and Altruism: Sociological Clues to Economics Development
By Kaushik Basu
-
By Xi (canny) Zou, Kim-pong Tam, ...