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Measuring Voter Decision Strategies in Political Behavior and Public Opinion Research

Lau, Richard R; Kleinberg, Mona S; Ditonto, Tessa M

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Authors

Richard R Lau

Mona S Kleinberg



Abstract

Although political science has advanced the study of voter decision-making, the discipline still understands very little about how citizens go about reaching those decisions. In this article, we introduce a five-factor self-report scale of political decision-making (PolDec-5) administered to six different samples with more than 6,500 respondents over the past four years. Analyses illustrate that our five subscales—Rational Choice, Confirmatory, Fast and Frugal, Heuristic-Based, and Going with Your Gut—have high internal consistency, relatively high discriminant validity (as they are largely distinct from existing measures of decision-making style), and significantly high predictive validity, as established by process tracing studies where actual decision strategies of voters can be observed directly. Finally, we discuss how these new measures can help predict important political outcomes.

Citation

Lau, R. R., Kleinberg, M. S., & Ditonto, T. M. (2018). Measuring Voter Decision Strategies in Political Behavior and Public Opinion Research. Public Opinion Quarterly, 82(S1), 911-936. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy004

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Mar 22, 2018
Publication Date 2018
Deposit Date Dec 5, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Public Opinion Quarterly
Print ISSN 0033-362X
Electronic ISSN 1537-5331
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 82
Issue S1
Pages 911-936
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy004

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Copyright Statement
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Public Opinion Quarterly following peer review. The version of record Lau, Richard R, Kleinberg, Mona S & Ditonto, Tessa M (2018). Measuring Voter Decision Strategies in Political Behavior and Public Opinion Research. Public Opinion Quarterly 82(S1): 911-936. is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy004.




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