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Can We Trust Recall‐Data? *
Author(s) -
Waldahl Ragnar,
Aardal Bernt Olav
Publication year - 1982
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/j.1467-9477.1982.tb00438.x
Subject(s) - recall , norwegian , consistency (knowledge bases) , voting , politics , social psychology , psychology , political science , positive economics , cognitive psychology , computer science , economics , law , artificial intelligence , linguistics , philosophy
About 15% of Norwegian voters report a different party than their actual choice when asked about voting at previous Storting elections. Even though this percentage is lower than in other countries, it nonetheless shows that recall‐data do not give a correct picture of people's voting behavior. The political stability among voters is exaggerated. This will have consequences for the monthly political barometers on account of the weighing procedures used. This article discusses different explanations for erroneous recall; incorrect remembering on the one hand and a wish for consistent behavior on the other. The consistency model appears to be most relevant. In this connection the distinction between stable and unstable voters is important.