“The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: Predicting College Students’ Voting Behavior Using the Extended Parallel Process Model

Anthony J. Roberto (), L. D. Mattson, Paige A. Von Feldt and Xin Zhou
Additional contact information
Anthony J. Roberto: Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
L. D. Mattson: Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Paige A. Von Feldt: Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Xin Zhou: W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: This longitudinal study examines how well the EPPM predicts and explains college students’ voting behavior. One-hundred-and-seventy-eight undergraduate students filled out a survey at two points in time: (1) four weeks before and (2) one week after the 2022 midterm election. As hypothesized, the EPPM accurately predicted danger control outcomes (i.e., severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy, and response efficacy predicted voting intentions, and voting intentions predicted voting behavior). The EPPM also predicted one fear control outcome (though only the path between severity and fear was significant). More specifically, the EPPM explained 45.7% of the variance in intention, 81.7% of the variance in behavior, 77% of the variance in contesting, and 33.6% of the variance in suppression.

Keywords: extended parallel process model (EPPM); fear appeals; voting behavior; danger control; fear control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/11/628/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/11/628/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:11:p:628-:d:1277785

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().