Abstract
Our study examines the influence of various candidate characteristics (sociodemographic profile, competence and experience, issue positions, and party affiliation) on voters’ preference for a candidate, and investigates the impact of voters’ levels of political sophistication on their likelihood of considering various candidate characteristics voters when deciding whom to support. Using data from the 2015 Finnish National Election Study, this study is situated within the complex Finnish open list system with many candidates at display and mandatory preference voting. We find that voters mostly argue to make their choice based on candidate characteristics with direct politically relevant information such as candidate party affiliation and issue positions. Candidate sociodemographic profile has relatively little stated impact. Overall, voters with higher levels of political sophistication tend to be more likely to consider a broad range of candidate characteristics. When investigating the relative impact of each candidate characteristic (that is, their impact relative to the other candidate characteristics) on voting behaviour, political sophistication increases the likelihood of saying to rely on candidate characteristics that are more demanding in terms of information processing such as competence and experience, and issue positions. Our analyses also show how different measures of political sophistication have distinct effects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 137-155 |
| Journal | Politics |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 1 Jun 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 May 2021 |
Funding
Both authors graciously acknowledge the financial support from the Academy of Finland and the academic support from the IntraComp-team. The first author would also like to thank the ?bo Akademi University (Social Science Research Institute) for the fellowship it provided to work on this article and the hospitality. She also gratefully acknowledges the financial support that she received from Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Social Sciences. A previous version of this article has been presented at the ?bo Akademi University (Social Science Research Institute) and the 2018 ECPR General Conference. Thanks goes to all participants for their helpful comments and feedback. The article also gained from helpful input from Lauri Rapeli. Finally, the authors are very thankful to Anna Novis, Sam Crawley, and Achillefs Papageorgiou for their excellent editorial work and help. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The article is part of the research project ?Intraparty competition: The neglected dimension of political competition? funded by the Academy of Finland (Project No. 316239). The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The article is part of the research project ‘Intraparty competition: The neglected dimension of political competition’ funded by the Academy of Finland (Project No. 316239). Both authors graciously acknowledge the financial support from the Academy of Finland and the academic support from the IntraComp-team. The first author would also like to thank the Åbo Akademi University (Social Science Research Institute) for the fellowship it provided to work on this article and the hospitality. She also gratefully acknowledges the financial support that she received from Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Social Sciences. A previous version of this article has been presented at the Åbo Akademi University (Social Science Research Institute) and the 2018 ECPR General Conference. Thanks goes to all participants for their helpful comments and feedback. The article also gained from helpful input from Lauri Rapeli. Finally, the authors are very thankful to Anna Novis, Sam Crawley, and Achillefs Papageorgiou for their excellent editorial work and help.
Keywords
- candidate characteristics
- Finland
- political sophistication
- vote choice
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations