POWRE: Understanding Contribution Choice: Experimental Analyses

这项研究的重点是竞选捐助者谁寻求捐款获胜的候选人作出的战略选择。在这个项目中，研究人员使用计算机实验向受试者呈现一个模拟的“选举”，并奖励他们对赢家的贡献。调查的主要论题涉及信息的使用以及学习的程度和范围。受试者使用什么线索来识别赢家，他们这样做的有效性如何？主要因变量是人类受试者在解决贡献问题时的表现。操纵的实验条件包括候选人的数量，（模拟）贡献者的数量，模拟贡献者的“决定”的可预测性，以及受试者选择赢家者所获得的回报。对竞选贡献者所做选择的研究落后于其他政治行为者，如选民和候选人。尽管最近在这一领域取得了进展，但该学科对个人为什么选择为候选人捐款，他们如何选择支持的候选人以及金钱对选举和政策的影响知之甚少。虽然对捐款选择的研究可以从投票选择的文献中得到信息，但决定并不相似。与选票不同，竞选捐款是可替代的，也就是说，它们可以用于许多其他目的。没有“投资”（或花在）候选人身上的钱可以“投资”（或花在）其他地方。贡献者可以给多个候选人，甚至给每个候选人。与投票不同的是，捐款可以在不同的时间进行，即在竞选活动的早期或后期。这项研究的基本问题对于理解政治行为者的决定至关重要：人们如何做出战略选择？这POWRE补助金提供了宝贵的资源，以促进她的专业发展的调查。它使她能够提高她在计算机实验方面的技能，这是一个女性人数明显不足的学科领域。这也使她能够承担这一重大研究项目，并让学生参与她的研究，因为她开始了她的第一个终身职位。完成这项研究，反过来，将建议额外的途径来调查竞选捐助者的选择，PI的研究议程的中心焦点。简而言之，这个POWRE补助金允许PI在她的专业发展的关键阶段在她的研究议程上取得重大进展。

This research focuses on the strategic choices made by campaign contributors who seek to make donations to winning candidates. In this project, the investigator uses computer experiments to present subjects with a simulated "election" and rewards them for contributing to the winner. The main theses investigated involve the use of information and the extent and range of learning. What cues do subjects use to identify winners, and how effective are they at doing so? The primary dependent variable is the performance of the human subjects in solving the contribution problem. The manipulated experimental conditions include the number of candidates, the number of (simulated) contributors, the predictability of the simulated contributors' "decisions," and the payoff subjects receive for selecting the winner.Research into the choices made by campaign contributors lags behind that on other political actors such as voters and candidates. Despite recent advances in this area, the discipline knows relatively little about why individuals choose to contribute to candidates, how they choose candidates to support, and what impact money has on elections and policy. Although research into contribution choice can be informed by the literature on vote choice, the decisions are not analogous. Unlike votes, campaign contributions are fungible, that is, they can be applied to many other purposes. Money not "invested" in (or spent on) a candidate can be "invested" (or spent) elsewhere. Contributors can give to multiple candidates, or even to every candidate. Unlike votes, contributions can be made at different times, i.e. early or late in the campaign. The question underlying the research is essential to understanding the decisions of political actors: how do people make strategic choices?This POWRE grant provides the investigator valuable resources with which to further her professional development. It enables her to advance her skills in computer experimentation, an area of the discipline in which women are significantly underrepresented. It also enables her to undertake this major research project and to involve students in her research as she begins her first tenure-track position. Completing this research will, in turn, suggest additional avenues for investigating the choices of campaign contributors, a central focus of the PI's research agenda. In short, this POWRE grant allows the PI to make significant progress on her research agenda at a critical stage in her professional development.