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Thread: Identity Beats Policy When It Comes To Voter Choices

  1. #1

    Identity Beats Policy When It Comes To Voter Choices

    Here we go, this explains a lot...


    Identity Beats Policy When It Comes To Voter Choices
    New theory says social identity is a key driver of voter choice
    Duke University
    October 18, 2016
    https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...1018195635.htm

    As if you weren't feeling this already, new research says that two motivations -- your policy positions and your social identity -- are competing to shape which candidate you will choose or whether you will vote at all.

    Policy positions are a rational way to decide: pick a president whose policies align more closely with your own. Social identity, on the other hand, is what your vote means for your own self-image and how others see you.

    Political science researchers have generated many theories about voter choice. Most of them assume voters choose rationally, while others acknowledge the role of identity. But none had proposed that rational choice and identity might actually compete to determine voter choice...


    ..."We think that treating identity as something that competes with policy helps explain why voters often select candidates whose policies go against their own interests," said senior investigator Scott Huettel, chair of psychology and neuroscience at Duke....


    ..."People often think about what their vote says about themselves, how it makes them feel as a person, what it says about them to their friends and colleagues," said Huettel, who is a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences....


    ...The group's new model might explain some paradoxical voter choices in real-life examples, among them:

    To Vote Or Not To Vote

    For some people, the act of voting itself is primarily about identity -- not about the direct personal benefits of a vote, Huettel said. The chance that an individual's vote will have an impact on the presidential election is slim-to-none in most cases, because of the sheer number of people who vote and because of how the Electoral College system is set up.

    But if you cringe after reading that fact, you're not alone. The act of voting carries a strong sense of identity, which is reinforced by the social media streams we wade in on a daily basis.

    "People are deciding to vote not because their vote has a material effect on their future, but because the act of voting signals something to themselves and others," Huettel said.

    This adds to a political science theory called "expressive voting," which reasons that people have non-rational motives for voting. "In our model, we are specifying that these expressive votes are motivated by identity," Jenke said....


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    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

  2. #2
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GodismyJudge View Post
    Policy positions are a rational way to decide: pick a president whose policies align more closely with your own. Social identity, on the other hand, is what your vote means for your own self-image and how others see you.
    BINGO.

    This is one reason I will not be surprised if Trump wins based on this same principle. Many will publicly criticize him and deny they will vote for him, but in secret they will do it anyway. This is why many will be shocked.

  3. #3
    I see it as explaining the reluctance of voters who say they espouse conservative principles yet won't vote for Trump because they don't want to be "tainted".
    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

  4. #4
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fuego View Post
    BINGO.

    This is one reason I will not be surprised if Trump wins based on this same principle. Many will publicly criticize him and deny they will vote for him, but in secret they will do it anyway. This is why many will be shocked.
    The experience we have here in Norway is that populists tend to lose votes when the actual election arrives and people get serious about things.

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