Abstract
Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have experienced a rising demand in recent years, being an efficient and reliable way for voters to gain political information prior to elections. This article uses an online survey to examine the impact of the German VAA (the “Wahl-O-Mat”) on the political knowledge of its users concerning party positions during the 2009 German Federal Election. The article first assesses empirically the extent to which Wahl-O-Mat users are able to correctly identify party positions on relevant issues, and the extent to which they are misinformed. Multivariate analyses with a path model for categorical data are then undertaken to establish whether Wahl-O-Mat usage enhances political knowledge about party positions. It is shown that Wahl-O-Mat use has a positive effect on political knowledge, indicating that electoral effects can be partially explained by this change in the information level of users. However, it is also shown that political knowledge is very heterogeneous, and the level of confusion about party positions is high.
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