Measuring Perceptions of Candidate Viability in Voting Experiments

Abstract

The chapter examines perceptions of candidate viability in a series of voting experiments conducted in Lille, Montreal, and Paris. We show that: participants in these experiments are able to distinguish viable and non-viable candidates; these perceptions become clearer over time; and they affect vote choice. Moreover, we show that voters’ behavior is unaffected by whether they are asked (or not) about their perceptions of candidates’ chances of winning. We conclude that, for studying in details the determinants of voters’ choices, there is much to be gained in measuring, in a simple and direct manner, participants’ perceptions in voting experiments.

Reference

André Blais, Martial Foucault, Simon Labbé St-Vincent, Jean-François Laslier, Nicolas Sauger, and Karine Van Der Straeten, “Measuring Perceptions of Candidate Viability in Voting Experiments”, in Voting Experiments, André Blais, Jean-François Laslier, and Karine Van Der Straeten (eds.), Springer, chapter 4, September 2016, pp. 287–302.