TY - JOUR

T1 - Ideology as filter

T2 - Motivated information processing and decision-making in the energy domain

AU - Hahnel, Ulf J.J.

AU - Mumenthaler, Christian

AU - Spampatti, Tobia

AU - Brosch, Tobias

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2020/10/2

Y1 - 2020/10/2

N2 - The transition towards more renewable energy will substantially increase voters’ involvement in the political decision-making process in the energy domain. Decisions such as whether to approve or reject large-scale energy programs can be complex, especially when available information cues are numerous and conflicting. Here, we hypothesize that political ideology is a strong determinant in this process, serving as a filter that voters apply when evaluating the relevance of provided information cues. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the 2017 Public Vote on the Swiss Energy Act. A sample of n = 931 Swiss voters were presented with arguments in favor or against the Energy Act, which were framed in terms of values found to be relevant for liberal and conservative ideologies, respectively. Political ideology strongly determined individual attitudes and voting preferences. Political ideology moreover moderated the influence of information provision on decisions, in that arguments congruent with voters’ political ideology were more likely to be evaluated as personally relevant and integrated into their decisions. We discuss the implications of our findings for measures on how to address ideology-based decision-making in order to ensure a well-informed electorate.

AB - The transition towards more renewable energy will substantially increase voters’ involvement in the political decision-making process in the energy domain. Decisions such as whether to approve or reject large-scale energy programs can be complex, especially when available information cues are numerous and conflicting. Here, we hypothesize that political ideology is a strong determinant in this process, serving as a filter that voters apply when evaluating the relevance of provided information cues. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the 2017 Public Vote on the Swiss Energy Act. A sample of n = 931 Swiss voters were presented with arguments in favor or against the Energy Act, which were framed in terms of values found to be relevant for liberal and conservative ideologies, respectively. Political ideology strongly determined individual attitudes and voting preferences. Political ideology moreover moderated the influence of information provision on decisions, in that arguments congruent with voters’ political ideology were more likely to be evaluated as personally relevant and integrated into their decisions. We discuss the implications of our findings for measures on how to address ideology-based decision-making in order to ensure a well-informed electorate.

KW - Argument framing

KW - Information processing

KW - Motivated reasoning

KW - Political decision-making

KW - Political ideology

KW - Public acceptance

KW - Real-world political events

KW - Swiss Energy Act

KW - Voter preferences

KW - Psychology

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093098667&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/su12208429

DO - 10.3390/su12208429

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85093098667

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 19

JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)

JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)

SN - 2071-1050

IS - 20

M1 - 8429

ER -