Correcting Mistakes: Cognitive Dissonance and Political Attitudes in Sweden and the United States

Mikael Elinder ()

No 2009:12, Working Paper Series from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Cognitive dissonance theory predicts that the act of voting makes people more positive toward the party or candidate they have voted for. Following Mullainathan and Washington (2009), I test this prediction by using exogenous variation in turnout provided by the voting age restriction. I improve on previous studies by investigating political attitudes, measured just before elections, when they are highly predictive of voting. In contrast to earlier studies I find no effect of voting on political attitudes. This result holds for a variety of political attitudes and for both Sweden and the United States.

Keywords: Cognitive dissonance; Voting; Elections; Political Attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B59 C21 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
Date: 2009-07-01

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Working Paper: Correcting Mistakes: Cognitive Dissonance and Political Attitudes in Sweden and the United States (2009)
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