Wednesday, June 26, 2013
A1.18D (Oudemanhuispoort)
The theory of strategic voting is tested in a laboratory experiment for multiparty systems with proportional representation, minimum vote thresholds, and coalition governments. Based on a formal (computational) strategic voting game that produces election scenarios and outcomes with desirable characteristics and distinct opportunities for strategic voting, we test the decision-theoretic model by taking into account both sophisticated and heuristic decision strategies.
Participants with a purely instrumental (monetary) motivation voted in 25 independent elections. The availability of polls and coalition signals by parties was manipulated. The results show that voters are frequently able to make optimal strategic vote decisions if given the opportunity. However, voters also rely on simple decision heuristics and are highly susceptible to coalition signals by parties.
Co-author: Prof. dr. Thomas Gschwend, University of Mannheim
