Voting Advice Applications and Political Behaviour

Abstract

One of the main reasons that voting advice applications (VAAs) have attracted scholarly attention is because of their presumed influence on political behaviour. At least three such effects can be distinguished. First, VAAs may stimulate citizens to pay closer atten-tion to the election campaign and engage in a more elaborate search for information about the candidates or parties that battle for the citizens’ votes. Second, the use of VAAs may influence the chance that citizens go to the polls. More specifically, by helping undecided voters to make a choice these tools may increase the level of turnout in an election. Third, the results of VAAs may be used by voters to decide for whom to cast their vote and thus influence candidate or party choice. The increasing number of stud-ies published on these three questions have resulted in different estimates of the size of these effects. Hence, it seems time that scholars adopt a comparative approach and aim at explaining those differences. Furthermore, albeit an increasing number of studies have provides estimates of the overall effect, the question remains who are affected most strongly and which contextual factors determine the presence and strength of such effects. Moreover, since differences in effect size observed may also be attributed, at least in part, to methodological problems, studies focusing on these challenges and potential solutions are also much needed. This panel aims to bring together a set of cut-ting edge papers that address these substantive issues as well as the methodological challenges involved in estimating the effects of VAAs on political behaviour. Studies ad-dressing any of the three questions in contexts that have not yet been documented are also welcome.

Title	Details
Cognitive Dissonance and the Effects of Voting Advice Applications on Voting Behaviour: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment at the European Elections 2014	View Paper Details
The Effect of VAAs on Political Knowledge and Vote Choice	View Paper Details
More Than an Online Gimmick? The Swiss Voting Advice Application (VAA) Smartvote and its Effect on Electoral Participation	View Paper Details
Electoral Volatility and Fragmentation: Effects of Voting Advice, Issue Voting and News on the Vote	View Paper Details