Correcting mistakes: cognitive dissonance and political attitudes in Sweden and the United States

Mikael Elinder

Public Choice, 2012, vol. 153, issue 1, 235-249

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 (Am. Econ. J. Appl. Econ. 1:86–111, 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 both Sweden and the United States. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Keywords: Cognitive dissonance; Voting; Elections; Political attitudes; B59; C21; D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Correcting Mistakes: Cognitive Dissonance and Political Attitudes in Sweden and the United States (2009)
Working Paper: Correcting Mistakes: Cognitive Dissonance and Political Attitudes in Sweden and the United States (2009)
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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-011-9791-1

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