Title |
Do Implicit Attitudes Predict Actual Voting Behavior Particularly for Undecided Voters?
|
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Published in |
PLOS ONE, August 2012
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0044130 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Malte Friese, Colin Tucker Smith, Thomas Plischke, Matthias Bluemke, Brian A. Nosek |
Abstract |
The prediction of voting behavior of undecided voters poses a challenge to psychologists and pollsters. Recently, researchers argued that implicit attitudes would predict voting behavior particularly for undecided voters whereas explicit attitudes would predict voting behavior particularly for decided voters. We tested this assumption in two studies in two countries with distinct political systems in the context of real political elections. Results revealed that (a) explicit attitudes predicted voting behavior better than implicit attitudes for both decided and undecided voters, and (b) implicit attitudes predicted voting behavior better for decided than undecided voters. We propose that greater elaboration of attitudes produces stronger convergence between implicit and explicit attitudes resulting in better predictive validity of both, and less incremental validity of implicit over explicit attitudes for the prediction of voting behavior. However, greater incremental predictive validity of implicit over explicit attitudes may be associated with less elaboration. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 3 | 14% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 5% |
Russia | 1 | 5% |
Belgium | 1 | 5% |
Ireland | 1 | 5% |
Mexico | 1 | 5% |
Unknown | 13 | 62% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 10 | 48% |
Scientists | 8 | 38% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 10% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 5% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Turkey | 1 | <1% |
Brazil | 1 | <1% |
Sweden | 1 | <1% |
Singapore | 1 | <1% |
China | 1 | <1% |
United States | 1 | <1% |
Luxembourg | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 103 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 19 | 17% |
Student > Master | 17 | 15% |
Student > Bachelor | 15 | 14% |
Researcher | 10 | 9% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 6 | 5% |
Other | 19 | 17% |
Unknown | 24 | 22% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Psychology | 39 | 35% |
Social Sciences | 25 | 23% |
Computer Science | 4 | 4% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 2 | 2% |
Philosophy | 2 | 2% |
Other | 8 | 7% |
Unknown | 30 | 27% |