Widening the Scope of VAA Research

Abstract

This panel addresses current questions in Voting Advice Application research that arise once VAAs are treated as interactive political environments rather than neutral instruments. The focus is not on how VAAs function in general, but on how preferences are articulated under specific informational, spatial, and normative conditions. The papers engage with ongoing debates in the field by examining how design choices and contextual cues shape user responses and the meaning of the outputs that VAAs produce. A common concern across the panel is constraint. Preferences expressed in VAAs are examined as outcomes shaped by material circumstances, partisan attachments, and interface design. The contributions explore how distributive policy choices relate to lived local conditions, and how real-time feedback on party congruence can activate strategic response behaviour. The emphasis is on how users react when signals embedded in the VAA make certain alignments visible, and on whether these signals stabilise or alter expressed preferences. The panel also raises questions about standards and responsibility. If user responses are sensitive to contextual cues and design features, then the criteria used to evaluate VAAs require reconsideration. Existing quality frameworks were developed in a different technological and political setting and do not fully address current challenges. The discussion focuses on which dimensions of quality deserve renewed attention, without assuming that a single set of rules can resolve these issues. The panel aims to stimulate discussion on how empirical findings about preference expression and user behaviour should inform normative expectations about VAA design and evaluation. It is intended for scholars interested in moving beyond accuracy metrics and electoral effects, towards a more reflexive understanding of how VAAs intervene in political decision-making.

Title	Details
Who Uses VAAs and for What: Empirical Results from Finland	View Paper Details
A New Typology of VAA Users	View Paper Details
Party Cues or Lived Realities? Contextual Constraint and Budgetary Preference Formation	View Paper Details
Quality Standards of Voting Advice Applications	View Paper Details
VAAs and Their Effect on Affective Political Polarization	View Paper Details