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Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity

Publication ,  Journal Article
Jenke, L; Huettel, SA
Published in: Frontiers in Psychology
October 15, 2020

Canonical rational choice models of voter preferences assume that voters select candidates whose policy positions most closely match their own. Yet, much of the electorate often appears to prioritize identity variables (e.g., social categories, group membership) over policy considerations. Here, we report an empirical test of policy-identity interactions using surveys of likely voters conducted in the 24 hours before the 2016 United States presidential election and the 2018 United States senatorial elections. Each respondent indicated not only their policy preferences but also key social group identities and how those identities would be reinforced by voting. We observed striking evidence for a competition between policy and social group identification: For voters who exhibited the maximal effects of identity, policy positions were essentially irrelevant to their candidate preferences. These results account for dissociations between voters’ stated policy preferences and their voting behavior, while linking empirical observations of political behavior to new models derived from psychology and neuroscience.

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Published In

Frontiers in Psychology

DOI

EISSN

1664-1078

Publication Date

October 15, 2020

Volume

11

Related Subject Headings

  • 52 Psychology
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
 

Citation

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Jenke, L., & Huettel, S. A. (2020). Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566020
Jenke, L., and S. A. Huettel. “Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity.” Frontiers in Psychology 11 (October 15, 2020). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566020.
Jenke L, Huettel SA. Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity. Frontiers in Psychology. 2020 Oct 15;11.
Jenke, L., and S. A. Huettel. “Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 11, Oct. 2020. Scopus, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566020.
Jenke L, Huettel SA. Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity. Frontiers in Psychology. 2020 Oct 15;11.

Published In

Frontiers in Psychology

DOI

EISSN

1664-1078

Publication Date

October 15, 2020

Volume

11

Related Subject Headings

  • 52 Psychology
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology