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Elections Are (Not) Exciting: Need for Cognition and Electoral Behaviour
Author(s) -
Sohlberg Jacob
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9477.12138
Subject(s) - cognition , relevance (law) , trait , politics , ideology , need for cognition , personality , government (linguistics) , habit , psychology , motivated reasoning , political science , social psychology , cognitive complexity , cognitive psychology , law , computer science , neuroscience , linguistics , philosophy , programming language
Need for cognition (NFC) is the personality trait that describes differences in the enjoyment of cognitive efforts. By relying on data collected over two elections in Sweden in 2014, I show the trait's multifaceted political relevance. Individuals who enjoy cognitive challenges are more likely to think that it matters what government that is formed after the election, engage with campaign information, favor complex news over simple news and select stronger reasons for vote choice over weaker, e.g., ideology over habit. Overall, the results suggest that election studies would benefit from measuring need for cognition.