How Voters Decide: Information Processing in Election Campaigns

Extract

How Voters Decide: Information Processing in Election Campaigns. By Richard R. Lau and David P. Redlawsk. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 366p. $75.00 cloth, $29.99 paper.

Models of voting behavior go a long way toward predicting the choices individuals make in elections. And, for practical purposes, prediction is critical, as it gives us important insight into the potential outcomes that might ensue, given certain conditions. However, research on information processing is increasingly focusing our attention more explicitly on understanding the process by which voters make decisions rather than focusing exclusively on the decisions themselves. This is exactly what Richard Lau and David Redlawsk do in How Voters Decide. This book departs from previous information processing research because not only do the authors propose a comprehensive process-oriented model of voter decision making, but they also test the various steps in the process using data gathered in an explicitly dynamic format.