Candidate Preferences Research Articles

Exposure and Preferences: Evidence from Indian Slums

AbstractHow is physical proximity to ethnic outgroups related to intergroup hostility and coethnic voting? These relationships remain murky despite extensive study, in part because existing measures of heterogeneity are too geographically coarse and provide little insight into interpersonal contact. I introduce a measure of outgroup exposure, the k‐nearest‐neighbors score, which sidesteps fundamental measurement issues by disaggregating to the level of the individual. Using original geocoded network data from eight neighborhoods, I confirm that this metric reflects social contact at the individual level. I then apply this exposure metric to an original, large‐n survey experiment from surveys in 149 neighborhoods in cities across India to test whether individual residential exposure is associated with outgroup hostility and coethnic voting. I find that proximity to an ethnic outgroup is associated with a preference for coethnic candidates, but is not associated with greater hostility toward members of the outgroup.

Populist Conspiracy Theories and Candidate Preference in the U.S.

Populist Conspiracy Theories and Candidate Preference in the U.S.

Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity.

Canonical rational choice models of voter preferences assume that voters select candidates whose policy positions most closely match their own. Yet, much of the electorate often appears to prioritize identity variables (e.g., social categories, group membership) over policy considerations. Here, we report an empirical test of policy-identity interactions using surveys of likely voters conducted in the 24 hours before the 2016 United States presidential election and the 2018 United States senatorial elections. Each respondent indicated not only their policy preferences but also key social group identities and how those identities would be reinforced by voting. We observed striking evidence for a competition between policy and social group identification: For voters who exhibited the maximal effects of identity, policy positions were essentially irrelevant to their candidate preferences. These results account for dissociations between voters’ stated policy preferences and their voting behavior, while linking empirical observations of political behavior to new models derived from psychology and neuroscience.

The discrimination decomposition index: a new instrument to separate statistical and taste-based discrimination using first- and second-generation immigrants

PurposeThis article deals with the impact of ethnic origin on individual employability, focussing on the first stage of the hiring process. Deeply, the authors’ goal is to fathom whether there is a preference for native job candidates over immigrants, decomposing the discrimination against minority groups into its statistical and taste-based components by means of a new approach.Design/methodology/approachThe authors built up a data set by means of an ad hoc field experiment, conducted by sending equivalent fictitious CVs in response to 1000 real online job openings in Italy. The authors developed the discrimination decomposition index using first- and second-generation immigrants.FindingsThe authors’ main result is that both first- and second-generation immigrants are discriminated compared to Italians. In between the two categories, second-generation candidates are discriminated especially if their ethnicities are morphologically different from those of natives (i.e. Chinese and Moroccans). This last finding is a clear symptom of discrimination connected to taste-based reasons. On the other hand, first-generation immigrants of all nationalities but Germans are preferred for hard-work jobs.Originality/valueThe authors develop the discrimination decomposition index to measure the proportion of the two kinds of discrimination (statistical and taste-based) over the total one and apply a probit model to test the statistical significance of the difference in treatment between the three groups of natives, first-generation and second-generation immigrants.

Party Elites’ Preferences in Candidates: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment

Party elites selecting candidates are crucial for the composition of parliament. Yet, despite their pivotal position within the party, we know only little about their preferences for potential candidates and how their own backgrounds shape these preferences. This paper presents results from a conjoint experiment carried out with party delegates chosen to select the candidates for five German parties in the run-up to three state elections. Theoretical expectations derived from the principle-agent framework on delegates’ preferences in candidates are evaluated. Analyses show that delegates prefer attributes indicative of quality and socio-demographic similarity in candidates. Additionally, I show that these preferences for candidates differ between inexperienced and experienced delegates, the latter showing a stronger preference for valence attributes in candidates. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of personal attributes of selectors for candidate selection and hold crucial implications for the composition of legislatures and long-term effects on public policy.

Characterization of Aflatoxin B1 Biomarkers as Preference for Antitoxin Candidates for Biosensors for Halal Food Supply

Characterization of Aflatoxin B1 Biomarkers as Preference for Antitoxin Candidates for Biosensors for Halal Food Supply

Vote Choice and the Nonseparability of Economic and Social Issues

Abstract How voters use political issues to elect political candidates is of central importance to our understanding of democratic representation. Research on voting behavior often assumes that American voters hold distinct economic and cultural issue preferences. In this research note, we point out that this does not necessarily imply that preferences for candidates’ positions on the two issue dimensions are also additively separable in voters’ decisions. Analyzing survey data on US presidential elections from 1996 to 2016, we estimate to what extent voters’ economic and socio-cultural preferences are nonseparable and find that the two general dimensions act as substitutes in their decisions. Our finding implies that voting decisions are partially structured by an underlying single dimension, as liberal deviations from a voter’s ideal point on social issues can be compensated by conservative deviations on economic issues.

Testing and unpacking the effects of digital fake news: on presidential candidate evaluations and voter support

There is growing worldwide concern that the rampant spread of digital fake news (DFN) via new media technologies is detrimentally impacting Democratic elections. However, the actual influence of this recent Internet phenomenon on electoral decisions has not been directly examined. Accordingly, this study tested the effects of attention to DFN on readers’ Presidential candidate preferences via an experimental web-survey administered to a cross-sectional American sample (N = 552). Results showed no main effect of exposure to DFN on participants’ candidate evaluations or vote choice. However, the perceived believability of DFN about the Democratic candidate negatively mediated evaluations of that candidate—especially amongst far-right ideologues. These results suggest that DFN may at worst reinforce the partisan dispositions of mostly politically conservative Internet users, but does not cause or induce conversions in these dispositions. Overall, this study contributes novel experimental evidence, indicating that the potential electoral impact of DFN, although concerning, is strongly conditional on a reciprocal interaction between message receptibility and a pre-existing right-wing ideological orientation. The said impact is, therefore, likely narrow in scope.

The Factors Determining Voter Turnouts in Presidential Elections in Nigeria: Multivariate Correlation Analysis of the 2019 Presidential Election

AbstractPeople’s active participation in elections is one of the key measures of electoral democracy. The people’s lack of interests or apathy in elections tends to undervalue the democratic process, engender mistrust in political institutions, and enthrone unaccountable leadership. This is why voter turnout is a crucial aspect of electoral studies. Even though Nigeria has successfully undergone two decades of uninterrupted democracy, she may not be too fast in imbibing the tenets of electoral democracy which presupposes active people’s participation in the electoral process. This is because there has been a conspicuous decline in voter turnouts in presidential elections since 2003. There are several factors responsible for this decline. This paper analysed three key variables – violence, socioeconomic factors, and candidate’s popularity - with the use of Multivariate Correlation Analysis (a statistical procedure that calculates correlation coefficients of two or more variables to determine the strengths of their relationships). The study, therefore, finds that of the three variables, candidate’s popularity as indicated by voters’ preferences for candidate’s/running mate’s tribe, political party, and trust in candidate’s abilities provide stronger evidence of the declining turnouts in Nigerian presidential elections.

Changes in Candidate Evaluations over the Campaign Season: A Comparison of House, Senate, and Presidential Races

How do citizens’ preferences for candidates change during a campaign season? For the first time, this panel study examines how citizens’ preferences for candidates change during the general election campaign season for House, Senate, and presidential elections, which vary widely in their salience and contestedness. House races exhibit the greatest mean change in candidate evaluations and presidential races exhibit the least. At the individual level, there is considerable variation across the three types of contest in the presence of a candidate preference and in change over the campaign season. We investigate differences across the three types of races in initial familiarity with candidates and estimate transition models to evaluate the effect of race contestedness, partisanship, presidential approval, political sophistication and knowledge on change in candidate preferences in each type of race. Change in knowledge of the candidates during the campaign season has the greatest effect in House contests, where initial familiarity with the candidates is the most limited.

Applying Virtualized Real-Time Response Measurement on TV-Discussions with Multi-Person Panels

AbstractTelevised debates are major events in electoral campaigns, serving voters as a substantial source of political information and reaching millions of the potential electorate. Scholars have made use of this potential by applying Real-Time Response Measurement (RTR) to assess reception and perception processes. However, RTR-research has yet almost exclusively focused on duel scenarios. In this paper, we argue that the focus on the duel format in political and communication science research is inappropriate. Thus, we apply virtualized RTR on TV-debates with a multi-person panel. Drawing on data of two field studies (n = 1191/1058) conducted with the Debat-O-Meter – an innovative virtualized RTR-Measurement toolbox – in the course of the 2017 federal election in Germany, we show that virtualized RTR-Measurement can indeed produce valid and reliable data regarding TV-discussions with a multi-person podium. Additionally, we find perception processes to be primarily shaped by party identification and prior political preferences such as candidate orientation. Furthermore, our results give strong evidence that candidate preferences are substantially affected by debate reception. Overall, our data follows an established structure well-known from research on TV-duels. As such, research on TV discussions with a multi-person panel is compatible with the existing repertoire of methods, offers great potential for political communication research and provides results that can be linked to current findings in empirical debate research while making its own contribution to the research field.

Gender, parenthood, and hiring intentions in sex-typical jobs: Insights from a survey experiment

We ran a survey experiment with Dutch employers to investigate hiring discrimination in sex-typical jobs. We ask if women are especially discriminated against when they have children, whether discrimination applies similarly in different occupations, and whether statistical discrimination or status-characteristic theories best account for discriminatory practices (if any).Employers rate fictitious candidates for either a female-typical job (primary-school teacher) or a male-typical job (software engineer). Employers are found to display a slight preference for female candidates when filling a teacher post, although such bias is less strong for female applicants with children. No such ranking is found for a software engineer vacancy, nor do we find different salary offers across candidates and across vacancies. Employers do not appear to favour men over women for positions likely to be on the career track, as predicted by statistical discrimination theories, nor do they expect women to be less capable than men, as posited by status-characteristic theory. Female candidates with children, however, are expected to be less committed to their job and work fewer hours, especially in the teacher experiment. Such expectations seem to have small consequences for the hiring decisions and salary offers Dutch employers make in our study.

Agency and Workplace Diversity: Evidence from a Two-Sided Audit

Firms increasingly delegate job screening to third parties. Outsourced recruiters introduce agency issues that can distort worker/employer matching. We present a simple model illustrating the tension between recruiters' use of private information about candidate preferences, and reputational incentives to impress employers. We then execute a novel two-sided audit experiment by directly engaging recruiting intermediaries. We show that agents' career concerns strongly shape selection decisions. Recruiters over-interview employer-favored candidates unlikely to reciprocate interest, while under-select candidates with stronger mutual interest. By changing outside offers, recruiters' career concerns affect candidates' negotiating leverage. We conclude by discussing extensions of our audit methodology.

The Effects of Probabilistic Forecasts and Stakes on Electoral Participation in an Exterminal Setting

This study looks at the effect of probabilistic forecasts and policy stakes on vote intention in an experimental setting. This study examined stakes and forecasts through exposing subjects to mock newspaper articles in two experiments: a fictitious mayoral election and the 2018 U.S. Senate race in Arizona. The study found that varying the policy stakes of an election had a significant impact on intention to vote, while varying the probabilistic forecasts did not have a significant effect on intention to vote. In the mayoral experiment, when the mock article said that the candidates disagreed on a major policy (high stakes treatment), subjects were significantly more likely to indicate that they would vote in that election in comparison to the article where subjects were told that the two candidates agreed on that same policy issue (low stakes treatment). In the Arizona experiment, I found that low stakes made subjects significantly less likely to say they would vote in comparison to the control treatment. Both stakes and probability had some effects on candidate favorability and candidate preference in my mayoral experiment. My results lead me to conclude that the media has the potential to influence political participation levels through the way they cover elections.

GRADES VS UNIVERSITY PRESTIGE? A STUDY ON THE RETURNS TO EDUCATION

This is a study determining which factor is a stronger return to education in a post-undergraduate setting: Grade Point Average (GPA) or the perceived “prestige” of the University attended. To classify what is considered “prestigious” and non- “prestigious”, I used rankings from the U.S News Best Colleges Rankings to classify the University of California campuses onto two separate tiers based on these rankings. I implement a survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk, in which subjects are asked whether they would prefer to hire a job candidate with a higher GPA from a lower tier university versus a job candidate with a lower GPA from a higher tier university. Using this survey data, I find that subjects have a strong preference for candidates with higher GPA. This preference still holds when including respondents that have hiring experience. The implications are that individuals will re-evaluate their preferences when applying to a university.

Working Conditions, Workers’ Rights, and Candidate Preference in the 2016 Democratic Primary

Abstract Working conditions and workers’ rights have long been indicators of broader societal power, yet it is unclear whether candidates who take explicit stands on such issues can expect to find electoral support among voters. This study draws on cross-sectional and panel data to examine the relationship between attitudes toward such issues and candidate preference in the 2016 Democratic primary. Although research on vote choice suggests issue attitudes are typically remote considerations, the findings indicate that Democrats who were more concerned about workers’ working conditions and the exploitation of workers were significantly more likely to prefer Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary. Moreover, findings from panel data suggest such attitudes were latent, rather than adopted, as Democrats who expressed support for stronger regulation of business in 2011 were significantly more likely to prefer Bernie Sanders five years later in 2016. The findings suggest that issue attitudes can be meaningful considerations when there are distinct options for voters, and that the unanticipated Democratic support enjoyed by Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary is at least partially attributable to his strong and explicit stands on working conditions and workers’ rights.

Postmaterialism and referenda voting to legalize marijuana

This analysis of county-level voting on 22 state referenda that sought to legalize marijuana for medical purposes or recreational use is driven by hypotheses from post-materialism theory. Separate regression models for each type of policy largely, though not entirely, support our expectations. Voting to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana was greater in counties with larger college-educated populations, a partisan preference for Democratic presidential candidates, and smaller percentages of Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical adherents. The findings for age, the other primary driver of post-materialist values, are counter-intuitive, but holding these referenda during a U.S. presidential election year had statistically significant though different impacts on the outcome. The higher turnout during presidential elections seemingly facilitated voting in favor of recreational marijuana while lower turnouts during non-presidential elections aided voting for medical marijuana. Finally, population density was not statistically significant in either model.

Speaking up to stay in parliament: the electoral importance of speeches and other parliamentary activities

ABSTRACTIn flexible-list proportional representation systems, where voters are allowed to cast candidate preference votes, parties have much control over which candidates win seats. The influence of both party ballot rankings and preference votes, begs the question of whether more active legislators who seek reelection are rewarded by voters. We test this question by analyzing the effects of different types of parliamentary activities on preference votes for four legislative terms of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Our study differs from most of the previous literature which typically focuses on a single parliamentary term or compares single parliamentary terms across countries. While the relationships between some activities and preference votes vary across the legislative periods, we observe consistency in the positive relationship between frequency of speaking in parliament and preference vote shares. The more sessions legislators speak in, the higher their share of preference votes in the following election.

How Major League Teams Hire Entry-Level Ticket Sales Representatives: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract: Maintaining a robust salesforce is critical for nearly any business. The sport industry is no exception, as salespeople help sport organizations generate essential ticket revenue. While the sport industry is a popular career option for young professionals, relatively few aspiring sport managers desire to work in sales. As such, entry-level sport ticket sales positions experience high turnover. The purpose of this study is to assess the hiring processes of recruitment, evaluation, and selection of sales candidates among North American professional sport leagues. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 ticket sales hiring managers from teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL). Data analysis from interviews revealed four primary themes: (a) recruitment as an active and continuous process, (b) contrasting approaches to interviewing, (c) hiring managers’ preferences for ideal candidates, and (d) challenges assessing candidates. Several subthemes were identified. Implications for faculty, practitioners, and students are discussed.

Empregabilidade no setor contábil, modalidade de formação acadêmica e gênero: qual a relação?

Investigou-se, nesta pesquisa, a relação entre as variáveis: empregabilidade, modalidade de formação acadêmica e gênero, a fim de identificar se os profissionais da contabilidade consideram os antecedentes educacionais e o gênero em suas decisões de contratações, discutindo, também, a opinião destes com relação à equivalência entre cursos ministrados presencialmente e on-line. Os dados, coletados de uma amostra de 188 proprietários de organizações contábeis de quatro microrregiões do Triângulo Mineiro, revelaram um perfil de respondentes, em sua maioria, do gênero masculino (70,7%), com formação em nível superior (67,7%) e idade média de 47 anos. Prevalecem profissionais que não conhecem ou vivenciaram o ensino a distância (EaD) (66,5%). Em 16 organizações não há nenhuma mulher no quadro funcional. Os dados analisados por meio da Estatística Descritiva, Análise de Frequência e Teste t-Student confirmaram que em situações de decisão de contratação há preferência por candidatos e candidatas que tenham obtido sua graduação por meio do ensino presencial. Constatou-se, em uma escala de 0 a 10, que a maior média de recomendação é para candidatas do gênero feminino que tenham cursado sua graduação na modalidade de ensino presencial (?=8,67). Confirmou-se, portanto, a relação entre a empregabilidade, usada como proxy para a decisão de contratação, a formação acadêmica na modalidade de ensino presencial, e o gênero feminino nas preferências contratuais de profissionais da contabilidade. Os resultados apontam ainda que 58,51% da amostra investigada consideram que as faculdades e cursos ministrados de forma on-line são inferiores aos presenciais.