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The Effects of Mandatory Time Limits in the Voting Booth on Liberal‐conservative Voting Patterns
Author(s) -
Hansson Robert O.,
Keating John P.,
Terry Carmen
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1974.tb02605.x
Subject(s) - voting , legislation , psychology , time limit , social psychology , anomie , dysfunctional family , population , legislature , politics , political science , law , economics , sociology , demography , clinical psychology , management
One hundred and forty college students, in either (a) 2‐minute time‐limit or (b) a no‐time‐limit condition, voted their conscience on actual pending legislation in their state in a test of hypothesis that such time limits in the voting booth created a stimulus overload situation. Such a situation was expected to result in dysfunctional adaptation responses, with unintended effects on voting patterns. Results indicated that subjects in the time stress condition voted significantly more conservatively on these issues. This conservative shift is interpreted as a function of overload, with serious political implications for urban planners, whose response to increasing population density often has been to increase the tempo by which citizens are processed through the cities’institutional and social services.