Showing papers on "Voting behavior published in 2015"

Does Corruption Information Inspire the Fight or Quash the Hope? A Field Experiment in Mexico on Voter Turnout, Choice, and Party Identification

Abstract: Retrospective voting models assume that offering more information to voters about their incumbents’ performance strengthens electoral accountability. However, it is unclear whether incumbent corruption information translates into higher political participation and increased support for challengers. We provide experimental evidence that such information not only decreases incumbent party support in local elections in Mexico, but also decreases voter turnout and support for the challenger party, as well as erodes partisan attachments. While information clearly is necessary to improve accountability, corruption information is not sufficient because voters may respond to it by withdrawing from the political process. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for studies of voting behavior.

News, Politics, and Negativity

Abstract: Work in political communication has discussed the ongoing predominance of negative news, but has offered few convincing accounts for this focus. A growing body of lit- erature shows that humans regularly pay more attention to negative information than to positive information, however. This article argues that we should view the nature of news content in part as a consequence of this asymmetry bias observed in human behavior. A psychophysiological experiment capturing viewers' reactions to actual news content shows that negative news elicits stronger and more sustained reactions than does positive news. Results are discussed as they pertain to political behavior and communication, and to politics and political institutions more generally. News content is dominated by the negative. Consider the well-known phrases "If it bleeds, it leads" or "No news is good news." Or simply consider any recent newspaper or televi- sion news broadcast. That news tends to be negative is clear enough to any regular news consumer. Political news is of course no exception. And an increasing body of work in political science suggests that this negative information may matter a great deal. Research suggests asymmetry in responses to negative versus positive information, across a wide range of domains. There is evidence that negative information plays a greater role in voting behavior, for instance; that U.S. presidents are penalized electorally for negative economic trends but reap few electoral benefits from positive trends; asymmetries have been identified in the formation of more general impressions of U.S. presidential candidates and parties; and the significance of negativity has been examined as it relates to the effects of negative campaigning, and declining trust in governments. 1 Why is there such an emphasis on negative information in mass media, and in politi- cal communications and politics more generally? This article explores one likely answer to this question. The paper reports findings from a lab experiment in which participants view a selection of real television news stories while we monitor a number of physiological indica- tors, including heart rate and skin conductance. Results confirm that negative information produces a much stronger psychophysiological response than does positive information;

From Gulf to Bridge When Do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence

Abstract: Much of contemporary American political rhetoric is characterized by liberals and conservatives advancing arguments for the morality of their respective political positions. However, research suggests such moral rhetoric is largely ineffective for persuading those who do not already hold one's position because advocates advancing these arguments fail to account for the divergent moral commitments that undergird America's political divisions. Building on this, we hypothesize that (a) political advocates spontaneously make arguments grounded in their own moral values, not the values of those targeted for persuasion, and (b) political arguments reframed to appeal to the moral values of those holding the opposing political position are typically more effective. We find support for these claims across six studies involving diverse political issues, including same-sex marriage, universal health care, military spending, and adopting English as the nation's official langauge. Mediation and moderation analyses further indicated that reframed moral appeals were persuasive because they increased the apparent agreement between the political position and the targeted individuals' moral values.

Correlation Neglect, Voting Behavior, and Information Aggregation

Abstract: In this paper we analyse elections when voters underestimate the correlation between their information sources ("correlation neglect"). We find that this cognitive bias can improve political outcomes. We show that the extreme beliefs which result from correlation neglect induce some voters to base their vote on information rather than on political preferences. We characterise conditions on the distribution of preferences under which this induces higher vote shares for the optimal policies and better information aggregation.

Reputation concerns of independent directors: : Evidence from individual director voting

Abstract: This study examines the voting behavior of independent directors of public companies in China from 2004–2012. The unique data at the individual-director level overcome endogeneity in both board formation and proposal selection by allowing analysis based on within-board proposal variation. Career-conscious directors, measured by age and the director's reputation value, are more likely to dissent; dissension is eventually rewarded in the marketplace in the form of more outside directorships and a lower risk of regulatory sanctions. Director dissension improves corporate governance and market transparency primarily through the responses of stakeholders (shareholders, creditors, and regulators), to whom dissension disseminates information.

The Latin American Voter: Pursuing Representation and Accountability in Challenging Contexts

Abstract: In this volume, experts on Latin American public opinion and political behavior employ region-wide public opinion studies, elite surveys, experiments, and advanced statistical methods to reach several key conclusions about voting behavior in the region's emerging democracies. In Latin America, to varying degrees the average voter grounds his or her decision in factors identified in classic models of voter choice. Individuals are motivated to go to the polls and select elected officials on the basis of class, religion, gender, ethnicity and other demographic factors; substantive political connections including partisanship, left-right stances, and policy preferences; and politician performance in areas like the economy, corruption, and crime. Yet evidence from Latin America shows that the determinants of voter choice cannot be properly understood without reference to context--the substance (specific cleavages, campaigns, performance) and the structure (fragmentation and polarization) that characterize the political environment. Voting behavior reflects the relative youth and fluidity of the region's party systems, as parties emerge and splinter to a far greater degree than in long-standing party systems. Consequently, explanations of voter choice centered around country differences stand on equal footing to explanations focused on individual-level factors.

Political Discourse Analysis

Abstract: Defining political discourse as talk and text produced in regard to concrete political issues (language in politics) or the actual language use of institutional political actors (language of politicians), this article outlines traditionally recognized and newly identified links between language and politics. After clarifying some conceptual ambiguities and elaborating the historical roots of political language research, the article surveys themes, actors, methods, data, and research goals of PDA, based on key texts and the latest studies in the field. Keywords: argument and persuasion; language and social interaction; political communication; political media content

Economic Models of Voting

Abstract: The economic vote provides a widely available tool for gauging electoral accountability. Yet in many cases, this search for electoral accountability appears elusive. A large literature has yielded conflicting and unstable empirical results. While there appears to be an association between the economy and citizens' voting behavior, we are unsure of its foundation. Do citizens reflect on the performance of the economy when choosing between candidates in democratic elections? What determines the existence and size of the economic vote: individual attributes, the wider politico-economic context, or messages received from trusted elites? Scholars have unearthed some answers by turning outward to consider context, theorizing the cross-national, individual-level, and temporal conditions under which economic voting is likely to be strongest. In addition, more recently, researchers have turned inward to reassess the mechanism that drives the link between economic performance and voting behavior. Future scholarship must continue to interrogate core theoretical questions in an effort to better understand how citizens' subjective economic evaluations are reflected in their decisions as voters. Keywords: economy; voting behavior; economic evaluations; sociotropic economy; motivated reasoning; endogeneity; clarity of responsibility

Globalization and Its (Dis-)Content: Trade Shocks and Voting Behavior

Abstract: We identify the causal effect of trade-integration with China and Eastern Europe on voting in Germany from 1987 to 2009. Looking at the entire political spectrum, we find that only extreme-right parties respond significantly to trade integration. Their vote share increases with import competition and decreases with export access opportunities. We unpack mechanisms using reduced form evidence and a causal mediation analysis. Two-thirds of the total effect of trade integration on voting appears to be driven by observable labor market adjustments, primarily changes in manufacturing employment. These results are mirrored in an individual-level analysis in the German Socioeconomic Panel.

Group Identity and Political Cohesion

Abstract: This entry examines the conditions under which group identities become politicized, the psychology underlying this process, and the consequences of political identities for political cohesion and engagement. The political consequences of membership in various demographic and religious groups played a central role in the earliest voting studies and these findings have been theoretically and empirically enriched by an active research focus on social identities within social psychology. Foundational research has identified the underpinnings of cohesive group political behavior in the existence of chronic strong group identities, an established link between the group and politics, and the emergence of group norms fostering a distinct political outlook and political action. Recent research has focused on dynamic aspects of group political cohesion, including threats to the group's status, the convergence of distinct identities, and factors that arouse strong emotions likely to foster collective action. Numerous questions remain unanswered about the conditions under which group political cohesion emerges. One set of questions concerns the origins of chronically strong identities in personality factors such as agreeableness and extraversion. Another set of questions touches on the origins of group identity in situational contexts that promote uncertainty. Finally, the degree to which group leaders can elicit cohesion and conformity, and the situational elements that promote such influence, is a very promising avenue for future research. Keywords: social identity; political identity; political behavior; group consciousness; public opinion; voting; collective action; conformity

Evolutionary Political Psychology: On the Origin and Structure of Heuristics and Biases in Politics

Abstract: People decide on political issues using judgmental shortcuts called heuristics. What is the origin of these political heuristics? Traditionally, heuristics have been viewed as learned from the structure of elite debates. This article outlines a different view: that many political heuristics are evolved, biological adaptations that helped our ancestors deal with political problems in small-scale social groups. By analyzing these evolved origins, it becomes possible to develop novel, testable predictions regarding the structure of political heuristics. This argument is illustrated through an extensive review of studies on the structure of the so-called “deservingness” heuristic. The article concludes by outlining four principles that should guide future research on heuristics in political psychology.

When Do the Rich Vote Less Than the Poor and Why? Explaining Turnout Inequality across the World

Abstract: The conventional wisdom that the poor are less likely to vote than the rich is based upon research on voting behavior in advanced industrialized countries. However, in some places, the relationship between turnout and socioeconomic status is reversed. We argue that the potential tax exposure of the rich explains the positive relationship between income and voting in some places and not others. Where the rich anticipate taxation, they have a greater incentive to participate in politics, and politicians are more likely to use fiscal policy to gain support. We explore two factors affecting the tax exposure of the rich—the political salience of redistribution in party politics and the state's extractive capacity. Using survey data from developed and developing countries, we demonstrate that the rich turn out to vote at higher rates when the political preferences of the rich and poor diverge and where bureaucratic capacity is high.

The Political Legacies of Combat: Attitudes Toward War and Peace Among Israeli Ex-Combatants

Abstract: Recent research has highlighted combat's positive effects for political behavior, but it is unclear whether they extend to attitudes toward the conflict itself. We exploit the assignment of health rankings determining combat eligibility in the Israel Defense Forces to examine the effect of combat exposure on support for peaceful conflict resolution. Given the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to global affairs, and its apparent intractability, the political consequences of combat become all the more pressing. We find that exposure to combat hardens attitudes toward the rival and reduces support for negotiation and compromise. Importantly, these attitudes translate into voting behavior: combatants are likely to vote for more hawkish parties. These findings call for caution in emphasizing the benign effects of combat and underscore the importance of reintegrating combatants during the transition from conflict to peace.

Digital Media and Political Participation: The Moderating Role of Political Interest Across Acts and Over Time

Abstract: Political interest is a potentially important moderator of the relationship between digital media use and traditional forms of political participation. We theorize that the interaction between interest and digital media can be either positive or negative, depending on whether the action is voting, an elite-directed act, or a self-directed act. To test our expectation, we use British Election Studies data from 2001, 2005, and 2010. We find that digital media use is positively and consistently associated with political talk for those lower in political interest. For voting, we find a similar relationship that appears to be strengthening over time. For the elite-directed acts of donating money and working for a party, we find a highly variable moderating effect of political interest that can be positive, negative, or nonexistent.

Clientelism as Persuasion-Buying Evidence From Latin America

Abstract: In distributing clientelistic payoffs to citizens, the best strategy a party machine can pursue, we argue, is to target citizens who are opinion-leading epicenters in informal conversation networks. This persuasion-buying strategy carries the highest potential yield for the party because the payoff can create a social multiplier: The effect of the clientelistic gift can be magnified via the conversion of multiple voters within a payoff recipient’s personal networks. Using cross-sectional survey data from 22 Latin American countries and a panel survey from Mexico, we confirm that individuals who engage in frequent political persuasion and who are located in large political discussion networks are the most likely recipients of clientelistic payoffs. We also show that a finding that is key to previous theories, namely, that loyal partisans are the most likely targets of clientelism, is driven by omitted-variable and endogeneity bias.

Analyzing Political Communication with Digital Trace Data: The Role of Twitter Messages in Social Science Research

Abstract: This book offers a framework for the analysis of political communication in election campaigns based on digital trace data that documents political behavior, interests and opinions. The author investigates the data-generating processes leading users to interact with digital services in politically relevant contexts. These interactions produce digital traces, which in turn can be analyzed to draw inferences on political events or the phenomena that give rise to them. Various factors mediate the image of political reality emerging from digital trace data, such as the users of digital services political interests, attitudes or attention to politics. In order to arrive at valid inferences about the political reality on the basis of digital trace data, these mediating factors have to be accounted for. The author presents this interpretative framework in a detailed analysis of Twitter messages referring to politics in the context of the 2009 federal elections in Germany. This book will appeal to scholars interested in the field of political communication, as well as practitioners active in the political arena.

The Effects of Voting Costs on the Democratic Process and Public Finances

Abstract: Increasing the attractiveness of voting is often seen as a remedy for unequal participation and the influence of special-interest groups on public policy. However, lower voting costs may also bring less informed citizens to the poll, thereby inviting efforts to sway these voters. We substantiate this argument in a probabilistic voting model with campaign contributions. In an empirical analysis for the 26 Swiss cantons, we find that lower voting costs due to postal voting are related to higher turnout, lower average education and political knowledge of participants as well as lower government welfare expenditures and lower business taxation.

Information, Inequality, and Mass Polarization Ideology in Advanced Democracies

Abstract: Growing polarization in the American Congress is closely related to rising income inequality. Yet there has been no corresponding polarization of the U.S. electorate, and across advanced democracies, mass polarization is negatively related to income inequality. To explain this puzzle, we propose a comparative political economy model of mass polarization in which the same institutional factors that generate income inequality also undermine political information. We explain why more voters then place themselves in the ideological center, hence generating a negative correlation between mass polarization and inequality. We confirm these conjectures on individual-level data for 20 democracies, and we then show that democracies cluster into two types: one with high inequality, low mass polarization, and polarized and right-shifted elites (e.g., the United States); and the other with low inequality and high mass polarization with left-shifted elites (e.g., Sweden). This division reflects long-standing difference...

Political Parties and Labor-Market Outcomes: Evidence from US States

Abstract: This paper estimates the causal impact of the party allegiance (Republican or Democratic) of US governors on labor-market outcomes I match gubernatorial elections with March Current Population Survey (CPS) data for income years 1977 to 2008 Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that Democratic governors cause an increase in the annual hours worked by blacks relative to whites, which leads to a reduction in the racial earnings gap between black and white workers The results are consistent and robust to using a wide range of models, controls, and specifications (JEL D72, J15, J22, J31, R23) P oliticians and political parties play a crucial role in the US economy The common perception is that Democrats favor pro-labor policies, and are more averse to income inequality than Republicans This paper evaluates the veracity of such claims at the US state level by estimating the causal impact of the party affiliation of US governors (Republican versus Democratic) on several labor-market outcomes Recent work provides evidence that political allegiance plays a role in determining politicians’ policy choices and voting behavior at the US state level Besley and Case (1995) find that Democratic governors are more likely to raise taxes, while Republican governors are less likely to increase the minimum wage They also find that when Democrats have a majority in the state upper and lower houses and occupy the governor’s office, there is a significant impact on tax revenue, spending, family assistance, and workers’ compensation

Tea Party in the House: A Hierarchical Ideal Point Topic Model and Its Application to Republican Legislators in the 112th Congress

Abstract: We introduce the Hierarchical Ideal Point Topic Model, which provides a rich picture of policy issues, framing, and voting behavior using a joint model of votes, bill text, and the language that legislators use when debating bills. We use this model to look at the relationship between Tea Party Republicans and “establishment” Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 112th Congress. 1 Capturing Political Polarization Ideal-point models are one of the most widely used tools in contemporary political science research (Poole and Rosenthal, 2007). These models estimate political preferences for legislators, known as their ideal points, from binary data such as legislative votes. Popular formulations analyze legislators’ votes and place them on a one-dimensional scale, most often interpreted as an ideological spectrum from liberal to conservative. Moving beyond a single dimension is attractive, however, since people may lean differently based on policy issues; for example, the conservative movement in the U.S. includes fiscal conservatives who are relatively liberal on social issues, and vice versa. In multi-dimensional ideal point models, therefore, the ideal point of each legislator is no longer characterized by a single number, but by a multi-dimensional vector. With that move comes a new challenge, though: the additional dimensions are often difficult to interpret. To mitigate this problem, recent research has introduced methods that estimate multi-dimensional ideal points using both voting data and the texts of the bills being voted on, e.g., using topic models and associating each dimension of the ideal point space with a topic. The words most strongly associated with the topic can sometimes provide a readable description of its corresponding dimension. In this paper, we develop this idea further by introducing HIPTM, the Hierarchical Ideal Point Topic Model, to estimate multi-dimensional ideal points for legislators in the U.S. Congress. HIPTM differs from previous models in three ways. First, HIPTM uses not only votes and associated bill text, but also the language of the legislators themselves; this allows predictions of ideal points from politicians’ writing alone. Second, HIPTM improves the interpretability of ideal-point dimensions by incorporating data from the Congressional Bills Project (Adler and Wilkerson, 2015), in which bills are labeled with major topics from the Policy Agendas Project Topic Codebook.1 And third, HIPTM discovers a hierarchy of topics, allowing us to analyze both agenda issues and issue-specific frames that legislators use on the congressional floor, following Nguyen et al. (2013) in modeling framing as second-level agenda setting (McCombs, 2005). Using this new model, we focus on Republican legislators during the 112th U.S. Congress, from January 2011 until January 2013. This is a particularly interesting session of Congress for political scientists, because of the rise of the Tea Party, a decentralized political movement with populist, libertarian, and conservative elements. Although united with “establishment” Republicans against Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections, leading to massive Democratic defeats, the Tea Party was—and still is—wrestling with establishment Republicans for control of the Republican party. The Tea Party is a new and complex phenomenon for political scientists; as Carmines and D’Amico (2015) observe: “Conventional views of ideology as a single-dimensional, left-right spectrum experience great difficulty in understanding or explaining the Tea Party.” Our model identifies legislators who have low (or high) levels of “Tea Partiness” but are (or are not) members of the Tea Party Caucus, and providing insights into the nahttp://www.policyagendas.org/

Compulsory Voting and the Turnout Decision Calculus

Abstract: By altering the turnout decision calculus, compulsory voting should alter the character of the voting population. Employing survey data across countries and Swiss cantons, I examine how the turnout decision calculus varies across voluntary and compulsory voting systems. Results indicate that many of the demographic, socio-economic and political factors known to correlate with turnout play a relatively weak role in motivating electoral participation where voting is mandatory. Thus, voting populations should be more reflective of the entire electorate in countries with compulsory voting. I conclude with a discussion of the potential implications of my findings.

Who Makes Voting Convenient? Explaining the Adoption of Early and No-Excuse Absentee Voting in the American States:

Abstract: Recent elections have witnessed substantial debate regarding the degree to which state governments facilitate access to the polls. Despite this newfound interest, however, many of the major reforms aimed at increasing voting convenience (i.e., early voting and no-excuse absentee voting) were implemented over the past four decades. Although numerous studies examine their consequences (on turnout, the composition of the electorate, and/or electoral outcomes), we know significantly less about the factors leading to the initial adoption of these policies. We attempt to provide insights into such motivations using event history analysis to identify the impact of political and demographic considerations, as well as diffusion mechanisms, on which states opted for easier ballot access. We find that adoption responded to some factors signaling the necessity of greater voting convenience in the state, and that partisanship influenced the enactment of early voting but not no-excuse absentee voting procedures.

Impact of Internal Migration on Political Participation in Turkey

Abstract: The Impact of population mobility on provincial turnout rates in the 2011 Turkish parliamentary election is studied, controlling for the effects of other socio-economic, demographic, political and institutional factors. Consequences of migration both at destinations and origins are considered. According to the robust regressions estimated, the relationship between turnout and education is inverse U-shaped, and between turnout and age (including generational effects), it is U-shaped. Immigration, emigration, large population, a large number of parliament members elected from a constituency, participation by large number of parties, and existence of a dominant party depress the turnout rate. However, at destinations where large numbers of immigrants from different regions are concentrated, the opportunity afforded to them to elect one of their own reduces the adverse impact of immigration significantly and in some cases even turns it to positive. That emigration, and education beyond certain level, have negative effects on turnout, that immigration’s adverse effect is less in areas with high migrant concentrations, and that in Turkey, political participation is highest among the youngest voters are the novel findings of the study. The latter finding may explain why voter turnout declines in Europe and North America but not in Turkey. D72; J61

Why Elections Fail

Abstract: Too often, elections around the globe are, unfortunately, deeply flawed or even fail What triggers these problems? In this second volume of her trilogy on electoral integrity, Pippa Norris compares structural, international, and institutional accounts as alternative perspectives to explain why elections fail to meet international standards The book argues that rules preventing political actors from manipulating electoral governance are needed to secure integrity, although at the same time officials also need sufficient resources and capacities to manage elections effectively Drawing on new evidence, the study determines the most effective types of strategies for strengthening the quality of electoral governance around the world With a global perspective, this book provides fresh insights into these major issues at the heart of the study of elections and voting behavior, comparative politics, democracy and democratization, political culture, democratic governance, public policymaking, development, international relations and conflict studies, and processes of regime change

Political Legitimacy in the Real Normative World: The Priority of Morality and the Autonomy of the Political

Abstract: According to what has recently been labeled ‘political realism’ in political theory, ‘political moralists’ such as Rawls and Dworkin misconstrue the political domain by presuming that morality has priority over politics, thus overlooking that the political is an autonomous domain with its own distinctive conditions and normative sources. Political realists argue that this presumption, commonly referred to as the ‘ethics first premise’, has to be abandoned in order to properly theorize a normative conception of political legitimacy. This article critically examines two features of political realism, which so far have received too little systematic philosophical analysis: the political realist critique of political moralism and the challenges facing political realism in its attempt to offer an alternative account of political legitimacy. Two theses are defended. First, to the extent that proponents of political realism wish to hold onto a normative conception of political legitimacy, refuting wholesale the ethics first premise leads to a deadlock, since it throws the baby out with the bathwater by closing the normative space upon which their account of political legitimacy relies. This is called the ‘necessity thesis’: all coherent and plausible conceptions of political legitimacy must hold onto the ethics first premise. Secondly, accepting this premise – and thus defending an ethics first view – does not entail that the political domain must be seen as a subordinate arena for the application of moral principles, that political normativity is reduced to morality or that morality trumps other reasons in political decision making, as claimed by political realists. Rather, the ethics first view is compatible with an autonomous political domain that makes room for an account of political legitimacy that is defined by and substantiated from sources of normativity specifically within the political. This is called the ‘compatibility thesis’.

Using Moral Foundations to Predict Voting Behavior: Regression Models from the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election

Abstract: The current research examined the ability of moral foundations to predict candidate choice in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election across three studies. Results indicated that endorsement of moral foundations predicted voting outcomes beyond that predicted by important demographic variables that are traditionally included in election forecasts and research. When moral foundations were collapsed into two variables (individualizing and binding foundations), increased endorsement of the individualizing foundations consistently predicted support for Barack Obama, and increased endorsement of the binding foundations consistently predicted support for Mitt Romney. The most reliable unique predictor of candidate choice among the five separate foundations was purity, which strongly motivated support for Mitt Romney. Additionally, increased endorsement of the fairness foundation uniquely predicted support for Barack Obama. The effects observed across the three studies demonstrate a direct relationship between moral foundations endorsements and candidate choice. Implications for those using moral appeals in their political influence strategies are discussed.

Interpreting Circuit Court Voting Patterns: A Social Interactions Framework

Abstract: Many empirical studies have found that circuit judges’ votes are significantly influenced by their panel colleagues. Although this influence is typically measured in terms of colleagues’ characteristics, this article argues that it is better understood as an effect of colleagues’ votes. Applying the latter interpretation, this article reanalyzes 11 prior studies of panel voting, as well as three novel data sets, and reveals the impact of colleagues’ votes to be strikingly uniform. In almost every type of case, each colleague’s vote increases the likelihood that a judge will vote in the same direction by roughly 40 percentage points. This result is consistent with a strong norm of consensus and can account for nearly all of the perceived impact of colleagues’ party, gender, and race. This finding raises questions about strategic and deliberative models of panel voting and helps clarify measurement issues regarding the relationship between judicial characteristics and voting behavior (JEL C31, K40).

Field experiment evidence of substantive, attributional, and behavioral persuasion by members of Congress in online town halls.

Abstract: Do leaders persuade? Social scientists have long studied the relationship between elite behavior and mass opinion. However, there is surprisingly little evidence regarding direct persuasion by leaders. Here we show that political leaders can persuade their constituents directly on three dimensions: substantive attitudes regarding policy issues, attributions regarding the leaders’ qualities, and subsequent voting behavior. We ran two randomized controlled field experiments testing the causal effects of directly interacting with a sitting politician. Our experiments consist of 20 online town hall meetings with members of Congress conducted in 2006 and 2008. Study 1 examined 19 small meetings with members of the House of Representatives (average 20 participants per town hall). Study 2 examined a large (175 participants) town hall with a senator. In both experiments we find that participating has significant and substantively important causal effects on all three dimensions of persuasion but no such effects on issues that were not discussed extensively in the sessions. Further, persuasion was not driven solely by changes in copartisans’ attitudes; the effects were consistent across groups.