Deciding who to vote for: Experimental evidence on the role of emotions

How do people decide who to vote for? The determinants of vote choice have been an important topic in the political science literature. Two main factors that explain vote choice highlighted by these research are the roles played by party ID and the rational choice model which is based on knowledge about candidates and programs. In contexts of low levels of party identification and political knowledge, however, citizens need to rely on other cues to make their choice. In this paper we present and discuss evidence obtained in a survey experiment regarding the impact of emotions on vote cho ice. The survey will be fielded in Chile, and is designed to elicit different emotions towards candidates. Results will provide evidence, therefore, on the direct and indirect impact that emotions have on citizens preferences.

Carolina Segovia /Universidad Diego Portales