In this article, we examine the effect of “choice fatigue” on decision making. In this case, another natural experiment permits the addition of candidate-specific fixed effects: for almost all elected offices on the ballot, the ordering of candidates is determined by the drawing of a random alphabet by the Secretary of State. Some states, like Colorado, restrict what a signature collector may earn, while Oregon bans payments to signature-collecting groups. This allows the inclusion of contest fixed effects in our analysis, which fully control for all observable and unobservable contest-specific factors that might affect voting behaviour. Perhaps emboldened by the national government’s stance, Colorado voters approved recreational marijuana use in 2012. That is, while we confirm that candidates randomly placed first within a contest receive a larger vote share, our main concern is whether this effect is increasing as the contest moves down the ballot (and voters become more fatigued). 2008.

M. P. Connect with friends faster than ever with the new Facebook app. Additionally, some have suggested that choice fatigue might cause people to vote differently ( Bowler and Donovan, 2000 ; Selb, 2008 ), although the evidence is mixed ( Mueller, 1969 ). Elections allow the people to pick representatives to serve in government and make decisions on the citizens’ behalf. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Secondly, given the finding in Danziger et al . We estimate that, without choice fatigue, abstentions would decrease by 8%, and 6% of the propositions in our data set would have passed rather than failed. 33. Unfortunately, given that ballot ordering is determined by legislated rules, a field experiment would be nearly impossible to implement. (, COUPE P.

These differences can be seen as random shocks to a contest's ballot position, particularly when controlling for precinct voting behaviour over time. In this case, a random alphabet is drawn in each county to determine the candidate ordering. T. Note that ballot length across precincts within the same election is highly correlated with the number of early local contests in each precinct, which in turn drives ballot position of later contests. (2010) study the sequencing of car customization decisions in a field experiment with Audi car buyers. The results for local propositions and state-wide propositions have very similar point estimates of 0.117–0.119 points, while the estimate for offices is slightly higher (0.167)—all of these coefficients are highly statistically significant. NATHAN This suggests that the estimates in previous sections are conservative, as they include situations in which voters have previously made a decision and, therefore, are not subject to choice fatigue. 10. MULLAINATHAN Crigler However, as a proposition's position is determined by the order in which it qualified, less important propositions are likely to appear lower on the ballot. Notes : Linear regressions of undervotes (percentage of voters who turn out to vote but choose not to make a decision on a specific contest) on the ballot position (“BP”) of the contest in a precinct. 18. Again, this suggests that the high motivation associated with primary voters reduces the effects of choice fatigue. (, BOATWRIGHT Washington, DC: CQ Press. B. J. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Is it a good idea to give citizens the power to pass laws? Most states in the western half of the country allow citizens all forms of direct democracy, while most states on the eastern and southern regions allow few or none of these forms. A referendum asks citizens to confirm or repeal a decision made by the government. For example, in the example ballots in Figure 1 , U.S. Representative appears at the same ballot position and State Assemblyman changes by only one position, even though the precincts differ by five local races. J. A. Referendums ask voters to approve a decision by the government. Concerningly, precinct-level changes over time are not captured in our analysis. 26. Although this will not reduce the total amount of distorted decisions, it will spread the effect across more contests and, therefore, lower the likelihood of swaying non-marginal decisions. NUNES

8 Leaves Some Voters Puzzled,", Mark Barabak, "10 memorable moments from the recall of Gov. For example, in state-wide and local propositions (yes-no decisions), lowering a given proposition by one position increases votes for the status quo (no votes) by 0.12 percentage points. J. M. M. At the same time, Abbott also loosened vote by mail rules allowing voters to deliver completed ballots to a county voting clerk "prior to and including on election day.". Statewide propositions are further ordered by type and listed in the order in which they were qualified for the ballot. The state-wide contests are rotated throughout all of the state's assembly districts, whereas the other rotation contests are only rotated through those assembly districts which appear within the county. Conservative leaders and two Republican candidates have filed suit to block Gov. In fact, if anything, we find evidence in this direction in the placebo regressions discussed below. D. Expenditures on individual measures average $1.2 million, with a standard deviation of $1.7 million. In this section, we analyse the impact of fatigue on the tendency to vote no on propositions. Decisions in many economic domains are made in sequential order, and therefore might be affected by choice fatigue. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. 3 This proposition appeared on every ballot in the state. Cues that may affect voter decisions are candidate ordering ( Miller and Krosnick, 1998 ; Koppell and Steen, 2004 ; Krosnik et al ., 2004 ; Ho and Imai, 2008 ; King and Leigh, 2009 ; Meredith and Salant, 2013 ), ballot configurations/design ( Walker, 1966 ), and candidate cues such as gender McDermott (1997) , ballot designation/incumbency ( McDermott, 2005 ), race/ethnicity ( Engstrom and Caridas, 1991 ; Vanderleeuw and Utter, 1993 ; Washington, 2006 ) and partisanship Sniderman et al . Politicians are often unwilling to wade into highly political waters if they fear it will harm their chances for reelection. The other exception is when a State Assembly or State Senate district appears in more than one county. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, What's Advertising Content Worth? Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, US coronavirus: Leaders in several states warn residents to be on guard as worrying Covid-19 trends emerge, New York restaurant owners have 'mixed feelings' about opening indoor dining just days after the city's coronavirus rate hit a 4-month high, Conservatives, GOP candidates sue to block early voting extension. Lupia, Arthur, and Matthew McCubbins. (, BROCKINGTON At the same time, Abbott also loosened vote-by-mail rules allowing voters to deliver completed ballots to a county voting clerk "prior to and including on election day." So where is the problem? Ned Augenblick, Scott Nicholson, Ballot Position, Choice Fatigue, and Voter Behaviour, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 83, Issue 2, April 2016, Pages 460–480, https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdv047. To understand our source of variation, consider Proposition 35, a California state-wide ballot measure in the 2000 general election concerning the use of private contractors in public works projects. One is that it requires more of voters. Having no information about candidates or a proposition does not imply that voters will choose a candidate randomly. 8. Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment, Issue Unbundling via Citizens' initiatives, Reducing Assortment: An Attribute-Based Approach, Institute of Governmental Research, University of Washington, Predicting Challengers in State Supreme Court Elections: Context and the Politics of Institutional Design, Ballot Propositions and Information Costs: Direct Democracy and the Fatigued Voter, Demanding Choices: Opinion, Voting, and Direct Democracy, A Low Information Theory of Ballot Position Effect, Election Roll-off a Test of Three Explanations, The Changing Shape of the American Political universe, Choosing not to Choose: on the Link between Information and Abstention, Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Confusing Ballots, Roll-off, and the Black Vote, Consumer Preference for A No-Choice Option, Context and Task Effects on Choice Deferral, Voting for Judges: Race and Roll-Off in Judicial Elections, Political participation and American democracy, Self-Control Relies on Glucose as a Limited Energy Source: Willpower is More than a Metaphor, Overchoice and Assortment Type: When and Why Variety Backfires, Estimating Causal Effects of Ballot Order from a Randomized Natural Experiment the California Alphabet Lottery, 1978–2002, Left-right Party Ideology and Government Policies: A Meta-Analysis, Choice Proliferation, Simplicity Seeking, and Asset Allocation.

29. (, BERTRAND * p  < 0.05, ** p  < 0.01, *** p  < 0.001. The Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org). Initiative and Reform Institute (http://www.iandrinstitute.org). Secondly, as voters likely (correctly) believe that later contests are less important on average, they might rationally choose to abstain from all later contests even if they are aware that local contests cause some randomness in position (see Kamenica (2008) for a discussion of a similar form of contextual inference in product markets). It may occur locally or statewide. M. R. Fiorina, Morris. For example, Proposition 35 (highlighted), which is discussed in the text, moved from ballot position 13–18. Not all states allow direct democracy, nor does the United States government. V. M. Senator race example. Finally, Column (6) compares the coefficients for propositions with no campaign expenditures to those with positive expenditures. The process to pass an initiative is not easy and varies from state to state. (, VANDERLEEUW (, GOURVILLE There are three forms of direct democracy used in the United States. t -statistics are shown in parentheses (all standard errors are clustered at the precinct level). On the other hand, to make a decision based on the candidates' gender, the voter must read each candidate's name, determine the candidate's likely gender, and compare these likelihoods across candidates. Job Search and Labour Market Exclusion in a Growing African City, Stability, Strategy-Proofness, and Cumulative Offer Mechanisms, The Cyclicality of Sales and Aggregate Price Flexibility, B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches, C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods, E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics, M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics, O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth, Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics, R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics, 4. Bowler and Donovan (2000) show that there is a relationship between aggregate no votes on propositions in past Californian and Oregonian elections and the number of propositions in that election. Three explanations are offered in the existing literature on the effects of ballot composition on participation in individual contests: information, confusion, and fatigue. States that joined the United States after the Civil War are more likely to have direct democracy, possibly due to the influence of Progressives during the late 1800s and early 1900s.