Measuring Perceptions of Candidate Viability in Voting Experiments

Book section: The chapter examines perceptions of candidate viability in a series of voting experiments conducted in Lille, Montreal, and Paris. We show that: participants in these experiments are able to distinguish viable and non-viable candidates; these perceptions become clearer over time; and they affect vote choice. Moreover, we show that voters’ behavior is unaffected by whether they are asked (or not) about their perceptions of candidates’ chances of winning. We conclude that, for studying in details the determinants of voters’ choices, there is much to be gained in measuring, in a simple and direct manner, participants’ perceptions in voting experiments.

Author(s)

Simon Labbé-St-Vincent, André Blais, Martial Foucault, Jean-François Laslier, Nicolas Sauger, Karine van Der Straeten

Scientific editor(s)
  • André Blais
  • Jean-François Laslier
  • Karine Van der Straeten
Title of the work
  • Voting Experiments
Date of publication
  • 2016
Keywords
  • Voting
  • Candidate viability
Pages
  • 287-302
Version
  • 1