Effects of Voting Advice Applications on Political Attitudes and Behaviour

Abstract

If the use of a Voting Advice Application (VAA) would have no effect on the political attitudes and behaviour of voters, these tools would presumably not have received so much attention from political scientists and scholars in other relevant fields of studies. Indeed, numerous studies suggest that the existence and usage of VAAs increases electoral turnout, because it facilitates the decision making of undecided voters. Furthermore, several studies indicate that the results of VAAs influence for whom people vote, although some groups of voters are more strongly influenced than others. Other scholars have focused on attitudinal instead of behavioural effects, for instance analysing the impact on political knowledge and political interest. The aim of this panel is to bring together a set of papers that advance our insights into such attitudinal and behavioural effects of VAAs. Such papers could, for instance, focus on the conditions that influence if and how strongly electoral participation and party or candidate choice are shaped by the usage of VAAs. Also with respect to political interest, knowledge and other attitudinal variables papers that shed more light on how, when, and how much VAA usage has an impact are welcome. In brief, researchers who explore such topics – no matter which methodology they use or what countries they focus on – are most welcome to submit paper proposals for this panel.