Voting May Be Habit-Forming: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

• Published in: American journal of political science Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 540 - 550
• Main Authors: Gerber, Alan S., Green, Donald P., Shachar, Ron
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 350 Main Street , Malden , MA 02148 , USA , and 9600 Garsington Road , Oxford OX4 2DQ , UK Blackwell Publishing 01.07.2003; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Canvassing; Control groups; Elections; Electoral behaviour; Field study; Habits; Habitual behavior; Local elections; Mailings; Policy making; Political action; Political behaviour; Political campaigns; Political participation; Political psychology; Political science; Polls; Voter registration; Voter turnout; Voters; Voting; Voting Behavior; Voting behaviour; Voting turnout
• DOI: 10.1111/1540-5907.00038
• ISSN: 0092-5853

Habit is a frequently mentioned but understudied cause of political action. This article provides the first direct test of the hypothesis that casting a ballot in one election increases one's propensity to go to the polls in the future. A field experiment involving 25,200 registered voters was conducted prior to the November general election of 1998. Subjects were randomly assigned to treatment conditions in which they were urged to vote through direct mail or face-to-face canvassing. Compared to a control group that received no contact, the treatment groups were significantly more likely to vote in 1998. The treatment groups were also significantly more likely to vote in local elections held in November of 1999. After deriving a statistical estimator to isolate the effect of habit, we find that, ceteris paribus, voting in one election substantially increases the likelihood of voting in the future. Indeed, the influence of past voting exceeds the effects of age and education reported in previous studies.