Voting

Making Votes Count: It’s as Much About Psychology (and Ballot Design) as Security

Poorly designed ballots can prevent voters from understanding, seeing, using, and processing information correctly, which can lead to voting failures that alter the outcome of elections. Applied psychologists and human factors engineers can make a real difference in ensuring that ballots accurately capture voter intent. More

The views expressed by political party leaders can change how individual voters feel about an issue, according to findings from a longitudinal study of voters in New Zealand. More

Voters’ Preexisting Opinions Shift to Align with Political Party Positions

The views expressed by political party leaders can change how individual voters feel about an issue, according to findings from a longitudinal study of voters in New Zealand. More
Emotion trumps partisanship and ideology when people evaluate political candidates, Linda Isbell’s research shows. More

The Emotional Citizen

Emotion trumps partisanship and ideology when people evaluate political candidates, Linda Isbell’s research shows. More
APS Fellow Jonathan Haidt explains how the science of moral judgment can shed light on voter behavior, political ideology, and compromise. More

How Voters Really Decide

APS Fellow Jonathan Haidt explains how the science of moral judgment can shed light on voter behavior, political ideology, and compromise. More
Concern over the security of the voting process is a recurring issue, but psychological science suggests an even bigger problem may lurk within our voting systems: poor design. More

Using Science to Understand How Ballot Design Impacts Voter Behavior

Concern over the security of the voting process is a recurring issue, but psychological science suggests an even bigger problem may lurk within our voting systems: poor design. More
Supporters of a political measure are more influenced by their initial preferences than cold, hard evidence suggesting that the measure won’t go their way, a study shows. More

When Voting, Political Preferences Outweigh the Evidence

Supporters of a political measure are more influenced by their initial preferences than cold, hard evidence suggesting that the measure won’t go their way, a study shows. More
Psychologists have found that we tend to think people who are similar to us in one explicit way—say, religion or lifestyle—will act and believe as we do, and vote as we do. More

The ‘Silent Majority’ Agrees With Me, Voters Believe

Psychologists have found that we tend to think people who are similar to us in one explicit way—say, religion or lifestyle—will act and believe as we do, and vote as we do. More
Neighbors’ lawn signs, public opinion polls and even a conversation in the next restaurant booth can affect how people vote in an election. But it all depends on how far away the election is. More

Who Influences Your Vote? It May Depend on How Soon the Election Is

Neighbors’ lawn signs, public opinion polls and even a conversation in the next restaurant booth can affect how people vote in an election. But it all depends on how far away the election is. More