Effects of VAAs on Electoral Decision-Making – Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment

Fivaz, Jan; Schwarz, Daniel; Ladner, Andreas (28 August 2020). Effects of VAAs on Electoral Decision-Making – Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (Unpublished). In: ECPR General Conference / Section: Voting Advice Applications and the challenges for representative democracies. Virtual conference. 24-28 Aug 2020.

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Based on data from a large-scale field experiment in the Swiss canton of Zurich we analyze the impact of Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) on electoral behavior. In line with previous research (e.g. Pianzola et al. 2019, Munzert et al. 2020) we find no evidence that VAA use leads to more swing-voting. However, VAA users make greater use of the possibilities offered by the Swiss open-list electoral system and split their votes more frequently. Furthermore, VAA users distribute their votes to more parties and candidates than non-users. Thus, we conclude that the impact of VAAs must not be reduced to the swing-voting aspect. Our findings suggest that the effect of VAA use on voting behavior depends on the voting system and the design of the VAA.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	Business School > Institute for Public Sector Transformation > Digital Democracy
Name:	Fivaz, Jan0000-0002-4960-8055; Schwarz, Daniel0000-0002-2345-7287 and Ladner, Andreas
Subjects:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Language:	English
Submitter:	Daniel Schwarz Badertscher
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2020 14:19
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2021 02:18
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.13079
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/13079