Does voting become a habit? New experimental evidence suggests yes—and it sticks.
Experimental Findings
* Field experiments and regression discontinuity designs tested whether initial votes create lasting participation habits.
* A massive shock to turnout in one election influenced millions of voters in future elections, confirming persistence.
* However, the study also revealed that habit formation varies significantly by electoral context and voter attributes.
What This Means
* The results highlight voting as a behavior with strong long-term consequences.
* They call attention to nuanced differences in how habits form across different election types (e.g., local vs. national).
| Is Voting Habit Forming? New Evidence from Experiments and Regression Discontinuities was authored by Alexander Coppock and Donald P. Green. It was published by Wiley in AJPS in 2016. |
