The Impact of Campaign Promises on Voter Behavior

Download or read book The Impact of Campaign Promises on Voter Behavior written by Tabitha Bonilla Worsley and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a candidate's rhetoric affect a voter's understanding of the candidate's position? Campaign promises, specifically, seem like they would affect voter opinion differently than position statements made without a promise. This dissertation develops a theory of how promises affect voter opinions of candidates with regard to non-promise position statements. Specifically, I argue that promises serve as commitments to voters of an action the candidate will take on a specific issue when in office. By increasing their perceived commitment to an issue, promises alter voter opinions both prospectively and retrospectively. Through a descriptive study of promise-making throughout the televised, presidential election debates, I show that there is a distinction between promises and non-promise position-taking in actual campaigns. I then present data from several survey experiments that demonstrate that promises have an impact on voter evaluations of candidates, and how they affect voter opinions. Ultimately, this dissertation points to the importance of understanding political rhetoric in position-taking.