Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Dynamics of Multicandidate Elections: Menu-Dependent Preferences

一些候选人能从与两个以上候选人的竞争中获益吗？ 传统的政治选择理论认为，在竞选活动中增加候选人的数量不会影响选民的偏好。 然而，越来越多的关于消费者行为的文献表明，改变替代品的菜单可以系统地影响选择。 这个博士论文研究支持项目测试这些发现是否适用于集体选择和选举政治。 学生们假设可供选择的菜单可以影响选民的决定。 当竞选中有两个以上的候选人时，妥协效应有利于温和派候选人。 因此，当有两个以上的候选人，种族和政党影响选民如何评价候选人不同，当只有两个候选人划分的政党标签和/或候选人的种族。 学生专注于如何感知的替代品和影响对候选人的影响是由一套替代品。 该假设是通过收集实验数据，在不同的选择情况下，不同的菜单的替代品。这个有趣的和创新的项目承诺，以提高我们对这个话题的理解。

Can some candidates benefit from being in contests with more than two candidates? Traditional theories of political choice assume that increasing the number of candidates in an election campaign cannot influence voter preferences. However, a growing body of literature on consumer behavior suggests that varying the menu of alternatives can influence choices in systematic ways. This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support project tests whether these findings apply to collective choices and electoral politics. The student hypotheses that the menu of available options can influence a voter's decision. When there are more than two candidates in the race, a compromise effect benefits moderate candidates. Consequently, when there are more than two candidates, race and party influence how voters evaluate candidates differently than when there are only two candidates divided by party label and/or by the candidate's race. The student focuses on how perceptions of the alternatives and affect towards the candidates are affected by the set of alternatives. The hypothesis is tested by collecting experimental data from subjects in different choice situations with a varying menu of alternatives.This interesting and innovative project promises to enhance our understanding of the topic.