Voters who hesitate about their vote choice in the run-up to an election often consult voting advice applications, especially in multi-party systems like the Netherlands or Switzerland. These tools tell them which party or candidate provides the best match, given their own policy preferences. This paper focuses on the effects of these recommendations on voters’ electoral decisions. More specifically, using election survey data from the Netherlands the analyses shed light on the extend to which voters follow these recommendations. Specific attention is paid to the role that consideration sets play. Does the size of the consideration set influence the chance that voters consult such tools? Are recommendations only followed if they concern a party that was included in voters’ consideration set? By tackling these questions the paper sheds light on a substantive issue (effects of voting advice applications) using a novel theoretical approach (consideration set models).
