Voting Advice Applications

Ladner, Andreas; Fivaz, Jan

doi:10.2307/j.ctvddzwcg.11

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Such problems may be caused by ill intentions or innocent but misguided design decisions (such as excluding parties without seats in the parliament (cf Skop, 2010). This underscores the importance of transparency from VAA providers (Ladner et al, 2010), as well as the ongoing best-practice discussions regarding the wording of issue statements (Louwerse and Rosema, 2014;Holleman et al, 2016;Isotalo, 2021) and different forms of aggregating preferences (Germann et al, 2015;van der Linden and Dufresne, 2017;Padilla et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Candidates, voters, and voting advice applications

Tromborg

Albertsen

2023

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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Voters often face a complex information environment with many options when they vote in elections. Research on democratic representation has traditionally been skeptical about voters’ ability to navigate this complexity. However, voting advice applications (VAAs) offer voters a shortcut to compare their own preferences across numerous issues with those of a large number of political candidates. As VAAs become more prevalent, it is critical to understand whether and how voters use them when they vote. We analyze how VAA users process and use VAA information about their district candidates with original survey data from the 2019 Danish parliamentary election in collaboration with the administrators of one of the most widely used Danish VAAs. The results demonstrate that VAAs have substantively large effects on their users’ choices between parties and between candidates within parties.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Candidates, voters, and voting advice applications

Tromborg

Albertsen

2023

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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“…Perceived political knowledge was measured on a seven-point scale with three items based on Ladner ( 2012 ) (e.g., By using (CA)VAAs, I have gained more understanding of the political landscape) . The scale showed to have a good reliability (α = 0.79, M = 4.28, SD = 1.35).…”

Section: Study 1: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to Study 1, perceived political knowledge was measured with three items to be answered on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 7 (“strongly agree”). The items were based on Ladner ( 2012 ). An example item is By using this chatbot, I have the feeling I understand the political issues better ( M = 4.36, SD = 1.27, α = 0.65).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

I Need a CAVAA: How Conversational Agent Voting Advice Applications (CAVAAs) Affect Users' Political Knowledge and Tool Experience

Kamoen¹,

Liebrecht²

2022

Front. Artif. Intell.

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In election times, millions of voters consult Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) to learn more about political parties and their standpoints. While VAAs have been shown to enhance political knowledge and increase electoral turnout, research also demonstrates that voters frequently experience comprehension problems when responding to the political attitude statements in a VAA. We describe two studies in which we test a new type of VAA, called Conversational Agent VAA (CAVAA), in which users can easily access relevant information about the political issues in the VAA statements by asking questions to a chatbot. Study 1 reports about an online experiment (N = 229) with a 2 (Type: traditional VAA/CAVAA) x 2 (Political sophistication: low/high) design. Results show that CAVAA users report higher perceived political knowledge scores and also answer more factual knowledge questions correctly than users of a regular VAA. Also, participants' CAVAA experience was evaluated better. In Study 2 (N = 180), we compared three CAVAA designs (a structured design with buttons, a non-structured design with an open text field, and a semi-structured design with both buttons and an open text field), again for higher and lower politically sophisticated users. While the three designs score equally high on factual and perceived knowledge indicators, the experience of the structured CAVAA was evaluated more positively than the non-structured version. To explore the possible cause for these results, we conducted an additional qualitative content analysis on 90 chatbot-conversations (30 per chatbot version). This analysis shows that users more frequently access additional information in a structured design than in a non-structured design, whereas the number of break-offs is the same. This suggests that the structured design delivers the best experience, because it provides the best trigger to ask questions to the chatbot.

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“…The data about the users will need some attention. As it has been shown (see for example Ladner 2011: 101f., Ladner/Fivaz : 186f. ), it is far from representative.…”

Section: Methodological Questions Research Context and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of the Electoral System on Political Campaigning: Are Candidates for the Council of States More Moderate than their Fellow Candidates for the National Council?

Ladner

2014

Swiss Political Sci Review

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It is commonly believed that majority voting enhances parties to cluster around the centre of the political space, whereas proportional systems (PR) foster great ideological divergence. The theoretical arguments for these expectations go back to the work of Downs (1957) and Duverger (1954). More recent studies, however, produced quite contradictory empirical findings. In this paper I will test whether similar arguments hold true for the positioning of candidates campaigning in different electoral systems. The elections for the two chambers of the Swiss Parliament and the data from the Swiss Electoral Studies (SELECTS) and the Swiss Voting Advice Application (VAA) smartvote offer an excellent -almost laboratory like -opportunity to do so empirically. The analyses show clearly, the theoretical claims that majority voting necessarily fosters more moderate positions find no support. The candidates for the Council of States, elected in a majority system, are not more moderate than their fellow party candidates for the National Council which are elected in a PR system. KEYWORDS: Electoral systems, PR voting, Polarization, Campaigning, VAAsThe impact of the electoral system on the positioning of the parties and candidates in the course of campaigns (and afterwards) is an intensely debated question in electoral research and parliamentary studies. It is commonly believed that majority systems enhance parties to cluster around the centre of the political space, whereas proportional systems (PR) foster greater ideological divergence. Similar expectations can also be formulated for candidates provided that they have the possibility to position themselves strategically. The theoretical arguments for these expectations are grounded in Downs' (1957) theory of the median voter and Duverger's (1954) law which claims that majority voting promotes two party systems. More recent studies, however, brought forward quite contradictory empirical findings (Dow 2001, 2010, Ezrow 2008, Curini/Hino 2012.The Swiss political system and the data from the Swiss Electoral Studies (SELECTS) together with data from the Swiss Voting Advice Application (VAA) smartvote 2 offer an excellent opportunity to address this question empirically.

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Voting Advice Applications

Cited by 21 publications

References 9 publications

Candidates, voters, and voting advice applications

Candidates, voters, and voting advice applications

I Need a CAVAA: How Conversational Agent Voting Advice Applications (CAVAAs) Affect Users' Political Knowledge and Tool Experience

The Impact of the Electoral System on Political Campaigning: Are Candidates for the Council of States More Moderate than their Fellow Candidates for the National Council?

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