2012/09/17 by Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz · 205 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Epistemology #Ethnic group #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Extant taxon #Law #Political science #Politics #Proposition #Psychology #Social psychology #Voting #Voting behavior
paper · doi:10.1017/s0007123412000300
published in British Journal of Political Science 43(2), 345-373 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2012/09/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Political scientists’ explanations for ethnic voting differ. Some have argued that the utility of ethnicity lies partly in the information that demographic cues provide about candidates, particularly in information-poor societies. However, extant research has not tested this proposition directly. This article proposes that, if part of ethnicity's utility is informational, we should expect that voters’ reliance on ethnic cues will decline when certain types of higher-quality information are available. To test this, a survey experiment was conducted in Uganda, with subjects evaluating candidates under varying informational environments. While support for co-ethnics was high when ethnicity was the only distinguishing fact about candidates, it declined when information was presented that portrayed co-ethnics negatively vis-à-vis non co-ethnics. These results suggest that informational environments can impact ethnic voting.