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The Social Calculus of Voting: Interpersonal, Media, and Organizational Influences on Presidential Choices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2004

PAUL ALLEN BECK ,
RUSSELL J. DALTON ,
STEVEN GREENE  and
ROBERT HUCKFELDT
PAUL ALLEN BECK
Affiliation:
Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1373 ([email protected]).
RUSSELL J. DALTON
Affiliation:
Professor of Politics and Society, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-5100 ([email protected]).
STEVEN GREENE
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1015 ([email protected]).
ROBERT HUCKFELDT
Affiliation:
Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 ([email protected]).
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Abstract

Voting choices are a product of both personal attitudes and social contexts, of a personal and a social calculus. Research has illuminated the personal calculus of voting, but the social calculus has received little attention since the 1940s. This study expands our understanding of the social influences on individual choice by examining the relationship of partisan biases in media, organizational, and interpersonal intermediaries to the voting choices of Americans. Its results show that the traditional sources of social influence still dominate: Interpersonal discussion outweighs the media in affecting the vote. Media effects appear to be the product of newspaper editorial pages rather than television or newspaper reporting, which contain so little perceptible bias that they often are misperceived as hostile. Parties and secondary organizations also are influential, but only for less interested voters—who are more affected by social contexts in general. Overall, this study demonstrates that democratic citizens are embedded in social contexts that join with personal traits in shaping their voting decisions.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 96 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 57 - 73
Copyright
© 2002 by the American Political Science Association

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