Self-Signaling in Moral Voting
- Author(s)
- Lydia Mechtenberg, Grischa Perino, Nicolas Treich, Jean-Robert Tyran, Stephanie Wang
- Abstract
This paper presents a two-wave survey experiment on self-image concerns in moral voting. We elicit votes on the so-called Horncow Initiative. This initiative required subsidization of farmers who refrain from dehorning. We investigate how non-consequentialist and non-deontological messages changing the moral self-signaling value of a Yes vote affect selection and processing of consequentialist information, and reported voting behavior. We find that a message enhancing the self-signaling value of a Yes vote is effective: voters agree more with arguments in favor of the initiative, anticipate more frequently voting in favor, and report more frequently having voted in favor of the initiative.
- Organisation(s)
- Vienna Center for Experimental Economics, Department of Economics, Rectorate
- External organisation(s)
- Universität Hamburg, Université Toulouse-I-Capitole, University of Pittsburgh
- No. of pages
- 37
- Publication date
- 01-2021
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 502045 Behavioural economics
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/c24f8223-2604-4304-8407-a8df5f935963