Voter preference and behavior in the presidential election of 1988

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

1-1-1993

Abstract

In a sample of American undergraduate college students, we used self-report measures to examine the relationship among voting-relevant feelings, beliefs, and actions in a meaningful and important social context. We found that supporters of the 1988 presidential candidates (Bush and Dukakis) differed only in somewhat greater partisanship on the part of the former and a greater concern with domestic issues on the part of the latter. Women and men did not differ on many measures relevant to candidate choice, although some evidence suggested a greater involvement in the traditional political process by men than women. Candidate choice was reliably related to measures of interpersonal attraction, and Bush supporters perceived more concepts or issues in their candidate's speech accepting the nomination than in that of the opposing candidate. In a second study that examined responses to words differentially attributed to Bush and Dukakis by listeners to these speeches, we found no significant differences in the postelection reactions of an independent student sample. © 1993 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied

Volume

127

Issue

1

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