Psychological Models of Voting Behavior

This lecture was given in PS 240 on November 12th.

Lecture Material

Psychology of Voting-

Bounded rationality- decisions must be made with realistic amounts of time, computational resources, and information available.

Heuristics- Solving problems which cannot be handled by logic.

Recognition Heuristics- if one of two objects is recognized we assume the one we recognize is better off.

Take the Best Heuristics-Take one attribute for decision to be made and the best value wins.

Elimination by Aspects

Take the Few Best (Aspects)

Viability heuristic less viable less likely to be enthusiastic

Group Endorsement-if group endorses candidate it gives you an idea on the stance of the candidate.

Party Ideology- Party ID

Polls

Motivational reasoning- we begin to form opinions and then seek out information to prove them. We block out all information contrary to percieved beliefs.