Rationality, affect, and vote choice Article Swipe
Costas Panagopoulos
,
Ching‐Hsing Wang
·
YOU?
·
· 2025
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408
YOU?
·
· 2025
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408
Introduction Although both rational choice theory and emotion provide some explanatory power for individual voting behavior, few studies to date have simultaneously examined the effects of rationality (cognition) and emotion (affect) on vote choice. This study aims to fill that void and to explore the relative effects of rationality and emotion on individual political preferences. Methods Using data from the 2000–2016 American National Election Studies, we conducted statistical analyses to estimate the effects of the party differential and the emotion differential on individual voting decisions. Results Findings indicate that voters take competing parties’ policy positions as well as their emotional responses to competing candidates into consideration to make their voting decisions. That is, individual voting decisions are guided by both affect and rationality. Furthermore, affective orientations appear to exert a larger impact on vote choice compared to rational considerations. Discussion The results call greater attention to the affective underpinnings of voting decisions and suggest that models that exclude or otherwise minimize the influence of emotional considerations on vote choice are incomplete or underspecified.
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- Type
- article
- Language
- en
- Landing Page
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408
- https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/political-science/articles/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408/pdf
- OA Status
- gold
- References
- 49
- Related Works
- 10
- OpenAlex ID
- https://openalex.org/W4413303075
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https://openalex.org/W4413303075Canonical identifier for this work in OpenAlex
- DOI
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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408Digital Object Identifier
- Title
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Rationality, affect, and vote choiceWork title
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articleOpenAlex work type
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enPrimary language
- Publication year
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2025Year of publication
- Publication date
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2025-08-19Full publication date if available
- Authors
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Costas Panagopoulos, Ching‐Hsing WangList of authors in order
- Landing page
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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408Publisher landing page
- PDF URL
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https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/political-science/articles/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408/pdfDirect link to full text PDF
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YesWhether a free full text is available
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goldOpen access status per OpenAlex
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https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/political-science/articles/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408/pdfDirect OA link when available
- Concepts
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Affect (linguistics), Rationality, Social psychology, Psychology, Economics, Positive economics, Political science, Communication, LawTop concepts (fields/topics) attached by OpenAlex
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0Total citation count in OpenAlex
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| citation_normalized_percentile.is_in_top_1_percent | False |
| citation_normalized_percentile.is_in_top_10_percent | True |