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

一些候选人可以从与两名以上候选人的竞争中受益吗？传统的政治选择理论认为，增加竞选活动中的候选人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以系统的方式影响选择。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。这名学生假设，可用选项的菜单可以影响选民的决定。当竞选中有两名以上的候选人时，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时，种族和政党影响选民对候选人的评价，而不是只有两个候选人按政党标签和/或候选人的种族划分。学生的重点是对备选方案的认知和对候选人的影响如何受备选方案集的影响。通过收集不同选择情景下受试者的实验数据来检验这一假设。这个有趣而创新的项目有望增强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.