Do Voting Advice Applications Affect Party Preferences? Evidence from Field Experiments in Five European Countries

Micha Germann; Fernando Mendez; Kostas Gemenis

doi:10.1080/10584609.2023.2181896

Do Voting Advice Applications Affect Party Preferences? Evidence from Field Experiments in Five European Countries

Micha Germann, Fernando Mendez, Kostas Gemenis

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Voting advice applications (VAAs) are online tools that provide voters with personalized information on the extent to which their policy views match those of political parties or candidates. These tools have proliferated across advanced democracies in recent years and become integral parts of electoral campaigns, especially in multi-party systems. However, it remains unclear to what extent voters actually make use of VAAs to inform their voting preferences. We present new field-experimental evidence on the short-term effects of VAAs on party preferences from five European countries. We find consistent evidence that exposure to VAA advice leads voters to update their party preferences in line with the information provided. Furthermore, we find partial evidence that VAAs more strongly influence less politically interested and undecided voters. Overall, our results point to the potential value of VAAs as a mechanism to strengthen democratic representation and accountability.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	596-614
Number of pages	19
Journal	Political Communication
Volume	40
Issue number	5
Early online date	1 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2023.2181896
Publication status	Published - 31 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Economic and Social Research Council

Data Availability Statement

Replication materials are available at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HURBH3.

Funding

Germann gratefully acknowledges funding by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ES/W000598/1). Earlier versions of this paper were presented in seminars at the University of Bath, the University of Cologne, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. We would like to thank Iulia Cioroianu, Hilde Coffé, Constantinos Djouvas, Vasileios Manavopoulos, Oliver Proksch, Katerina Vráblíková, Ana Weeks, Jonathan Wheatley, as well as three anonymous reviewers and the editors of this journal for helpful comments and criticisms. This study was approved by Oxford Brookes University’s Research Ethics Committee (reference number L19183).

Funders	Funder number
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies	L19183
Economic and Social Research Council	ES/W000598/1
Universität zu Köln

Keywords

Voting advice applications
democratic representation
field experiment
issue voting
party preferences

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Communication
Sociology and Political Science

Access to Document

10.1080/10584609.2023.2181896Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Voting advice applications (VAAs) are online tools that provide voters with personalized information on the extent to which their policy views match those of political parties or candidates. These tools have proliferated across advanced democracies in recent years and become integral parts of electoral campaigns, especially in multi-party systems. However, it remains unclear to what extent voters actually make use of VAAs to inform their voting preferences. We present new field-experimental evidence on the short-term effects of VAAs on party preferences from five European countries. We find consistent evidence that exposure to VAA advice leads voters to update their party preferences in line with the information provided. Furthermore, we find partial evidence that VAAs more strongly influence less politically interested and undecided voters. Overall, our results point to the potential value of VAAs as a mechanism to strengthen democratic representation and accountability.",

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author = "Micha Germann and Fernando Mendez and Kostas Gemenis",

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AU - Mendez, Fernando

AU - Gemenis, Kostas

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Y1 - 2023/12/31

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AB - Voting advice applications (VAAs) are online tools that provide voters with personalized information on the extent to which their policy views match those of political parties or candidates. These tools have proliferated across advanced democracies in recent years and become integral parts of electoral campaigns, especially in multi-party systems. However, it remains unclear to what extent voters actually make use of VAAs to inform their voting preferences. We present new field-experimental evidence on the short-term effects of VAAs on party preferences from five European countries. We find consistent evidence that exposure to VAA advice leads voters to update their party preferences in line with the information provided. Furthermore, we find partial evidence that VAAs more strongly influence less politically interested and undecided voters. Overall, our results point to the potential value of VAAs as a mechanism to strengthen democratic representation and accountability.

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Do Voting Advice Applications Affect Party Preferences? Evidence from Field Experiments in Five European Countries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Nonviolent Repression and the Escalation of Conflicts over Self-Determination (NRECS)

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Do Voting Advice Applications Affect Party Preferences? Evidence from Field Experiments in Five European Countries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

Nonviolent Repression and the Escalation of Conflicts over Self-Determination (NRECS)

Cite this