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PRO‐LIFE AND PRO‐CHOICE ISSUE VOTING
Author(s) -
Johnson Stephen D.,
Tamney Joseph B.,
Burton Ronald
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.1994.tb00337.x
Subject(s) - voting , abortion , protestantism , politics , social psychology , position (finance) , political science , psychology , economics , law , pregnancy , finance , biology , genetics
Four hundred and eighteen residents of “Middletown” (Muncie, Indiana) were randomly selected to develop empirical models of factors related to using the abortion issue in selecting a candidate for political ofice, for both pro‐life and pro‐choice people. Regression analysis was used to develop those models. For pro‐life people, social consensus developed within conservative Protestant environments related to abortion‐issue voting. For pro‐choice people, abortion issue‐voting behavior was based more on their political (vs. religious) views and there was less need for group support to do this. Among these pro‐choice advocates as well, young educated women were the most likely to translate their attitude position into a pro‐choice vote. Possible explanations for these results are then presented.