Viability, Information Seeking, and Vote Choice

• Published in: The Journal of politics Vol. 76; no. 1; pp. 152 - 166
• Main Authors: Utych, Stephen M., Kam, Cindy D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.01.2014; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Candidates; Citizens; Decision making; Elections; Electoral behaviour; Electoral College; Experiments; Heuristics; Information; Information search and retrieval; Political Campaigns; Political candidates; Political partisanship; Polls; Primaries & caucuses; Primary elections; Rating; Slates; Strategic Voting; Viability; Voter behavior; Voters; Voting; Voting behaviour

Existing research suggests that candidate viability influences strategic voting decisions among citizens. We argue that viability can influence electoral decision making beyond strategic considerations. We analyze original experimental data and novel observational data to examine viability’s impact...