The impact of campaign promises on voter behavior
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- 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.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Bonilla Worsley, Tabitha |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Political Science. |
| Primary advisor | Tomz, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Tomz, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Grimmer, Justin |
| Thesis advisor | Sniderman, Paul M |
| Advisor | Grimmer, Justin |
| Advisor | Sniderman, Paul M |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Tabitha Bonilla Worsley. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Political Science. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Tabitha F Bonilla Worsley
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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