The Impact of VAAs on (non-Voting) Aspects of Political Participation: Insights from Panel Data Collected During the 2017 German Federal Elections Campaign

Abstract

Thus far, research on the effects of Voting Advice Applications has focused on some aspects of voting behavior, whether, for example, these online tools impact citizens’ likelihood to vote or their voting choices. Relatively under-researched remain questions concerning the relationship between using VAAs and other forms of engagement with politics, such as involvement in electoral campaigns and information seeking about politics and parties. This paper seeks to examine effects in these behaviors associated with VAA-use employing panel data generated during and after the period of the German Bundestag Federal Election in September, 2017. The data from roughly 1120 participants, sampled to be representative of the German internet users, were collected in four waves, 1 month before the election at the earliest and several weeks following at the latest. We find that VAA-use is positively associated with consuming information about politics through other media (e.g. TV) and other election-related information-seeking activities, such as reading party programmes. On the other hand, we find no statistically significant relationship between VAA-use and interpersonal talk about politics or more active engagement with electoral campaigns such as attending party rallies.

Artificial intelligence and voting advice applications

“…Gemenis, 2018;Germann and Gemenis, 2019;Heinsohn et al, 2019), selection models (e.g. Garzia et al, , 2017bWall et al, 2014), difference-in-differences designs (Benesch et al, 2023), and panel data analysis (Israel et al, 2017;Manavopoulos et al, 2018;Kleinnijenhuis et al, 2019). The results of these studies were rather mixed, showing a positive effect of VAA usage on electoral turnout in some countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Finland, but not in others like Greece, while in Germany VAA usage was associated with information-seeking activities but not more active engagement with electoral campaigns such as attending party rallies.…”

Do Online Voter Guides Empower Citizens? Evidence from a Field Experiment with Digital Trace Data

“…Mahéo (2017) is the first to provide evidence on the impact on VAA usage on campaign-related information seeking behavior, finding no substantive effects. On the other hand, Manavopoulos et al (2018) report a surplus of politics-related media consumption among VAA users.…”

How do the Characteristics of Voting Advice Application Users Change Over Time? Evidence from the German Election Studies

“…Perhaps some became politically interested because they took the VAA. Both self-reported studies of VAA users(Fivaz and Nadig 2010;Ladner, Felder, and Fivaz 2010) and statistical analysis of panel data suggest such an effect(Manavopoulos et al 2018). There could also be a feedback effect, where political interest increases the likelihood of VAA usage, which, in turn, may increase political interest.…”