Journal article
Pocketbook Voting in U.S. National Election Studies: Fact or Artifact?
American journal of political science, Vol.29(2), pp.348-356
05/1985
DOI: 10.2307/2111171
Abstract
Some survey research suggests that economic self-interest influences the American voter. However, Sears and Lau suggested that these positive findings are essentially a methodological artifact, produced by the proximity of the economic and political items in the survey questionnaire. After a systematic analysis of the personal finance and vote items in 1956-82 Michigan CPS-SRC election surveys, the author concludes that no such artifact is operating to inflate the relationship between the two. Thus, the published work which reports a link between individual economic circumstances and political preferences remains standing. Of course, this does not mean that it is impossible, under any conditions, to induce artifactual connections between items. As Sears and Lau indicated experimentally, at the extremes of questionnaire design, such artifacts may be produced.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Pocketbook Voting in U.S. National Election Studies: Fact or Artifact?
- Creators
- Michael S Lewis-Beck
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- American journal of political science, Vol.29(2), pp.348-356
- DOI
- 10.2307/2111171
- ISSN
- 0092-5853
- eISSN
- 1540-5907
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/1985
- Academic Unit
- Political Science
- Record Identifier
- 9984025545102771
Metrics
19 Record Views