10.17889/E110697
Mullainathan, Sendhil
Washington, Ebonya
Replication data for: Sticking with Your Vote: Cognitive Dissonance and Political Attitudes
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2009
10.1257/app.1.1.86
10.1257/app.1.1.86
V0
Cognitive dissonance theory predicts that the act of voting for a
candidate
leads to a more favorable opinion of the candidate in the
future. We find support for the empirical relevance of cognitive dissonance
to political attitudes. We examine the presidential opinion
ratings of voting-age eligibles and ineligibles two years after the president's
election. We find that eligibles show two to three times greater
polarization of opinions than comparable ineligibles. We find smaller
effects when we compare polarization in opinions of senators elected
during high turnout presidential campaign years with senators elected
during nonpresidential campaign years. (JEL D72)