Ideology as Filter: Motivated Information Processing and Decision-Making in the Energy Domain

Ulf J. J. Hahnel, Christian Mumenthaler, Tobia Spampatti and Tobias Brosch
Additional contact information
Ulf J. J. Hahnel: Department of Psychology and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
Christian Mumenthaler: Department of Psychology and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
Tobia Spampatti: Department of Psychology and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
Tobias Brosch: Department of Psychology and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-19

Abstract: The transition towards more renewable energy will substantially increase voters’ involvement in the political decision-making process in the energy domain. Decisions such as whether to approve or reject large-scale energy programs can be complex, especially when available information cues are numerous and conflicting. Here, we hypothesize that political ideology is a strong determinant in this process, serving as a filter that voters apply when evaluating the relevance of provided information cues. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the 2017 Public Vote on the Swiss Energy Act. A sample of n = 931 Swiss voters were presented with arguments in favor or against the Energy Act, which were framed in terms of values found to be relevant for liberal and conservative ideologies, respectively. Political ideology strongly determined individual attitudes and voting preferences. Political ideology moreover moderated the influence of information provision on decisions, in that arguments congruent with voters’ political ideology were more likely to be evaluated as personally relevant and integrated into their decisions. We discuss the implications of our findings for measures on how to address ideology-based decision-making in order to ensure a well-informed electorate.

Keywords: political ideology; voter preferences; information processing; real-world political events; argument framing; Swiss Energy Act; public acceptance; political decision-making; motivated reasoning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8429/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8429/ (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:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8429-:d:427231

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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