This article examines how citizens form political preferences based on their approach to information acquisition.
Information Acquisition & Quality: Citizens develop stronger political preferences when they actively seek and find high-quality information about policy positions, rather than passively receiving low-quality content.
The distinction between active search (behavior) and passive exposure effects is crucial for understanding preference formation.
Experimental Approach: We designed a novel lab experiment separating the roles of citizens' information-seeking activity versus selective exposure to political messaging.
This allowed us to isolate these factors in their influence on voter preferences.
Issue Voting Context: Our findings demonstrate this dynamic using issue voting and European integration as examples during the 2014 European Parliament elections.
Participants included a diverse group representing various socioeconomic backgrounds.
Theoretical Contribution: The research extends existing theories of information processing by emphasizing its connection to quality assessment processes among voters.
The results suggest that active engagement with policy details strengthens rather than diminishes political preferences.
