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Title: Voting under the influence of far right misinformation
Abstract:
Despite widespread concern, there is mixed evidence as to the effect of far right misinformation on voting behaviour. I conduct an online experimental survey (n = 3000) during the 2022 French presidential election. The main finding is that there is no effect on voting intention for far right candidates, but rather a significant increase in support for centrist candidates. I provide evidence that these effects are mediated by changes in political attitudes with respect to the incumbent president Macron.
Title: Effect of misinformation on rational voting in the laboratory
(co-writing with Lily Savey)
Abstract:
Misinformation is often shared to improve the electoral chances of extreme candidates. Although it has been shown to influence voting in this way in France and Germany, the literature does not explicitly show that this is a deviation from rational voting. Rational voting means opting for one’s preferred candidate or, when she does not stand a viable chance of winning the election, voting for a similar candidate who does. As such, voters can maximise the utility of their vote. Our aim is to explore the extent to which misinformation obstructs rational voting. We propose to study rational voting in the laboratory, as it allows us to control for important factors that are inevitably imprecisely measured using survey data.
Title: "Inflation and behavior: Experimental intervention and analysis"
Abstract:
We experimentally analyze the impact of inflation on individuals’ savings and consumption behavior. Through an online experiment, we distinguish the underlying situational and personal factors that correlate with people’s adaptability to changes in inflationary conditions, observe people’s savings and consumption decision-making processes, and determine whether an intervention can improve their decisions and adaptability in such changing conditions. Subjects complete a principal task, an online intertemporal savings/consumption game that mimics actual saving and consumption decisions in a controlled environment. We measure subjects' deviations from the benchmark optimal strategy to derive their abilities to recognize and adapt their savings and consumption decisions to the changing inflationary conditions. To explore the individual determinants of these recognition and adaptation abilities, we collect a series of additional measures—some during the savings game (“internal measures”) and others through a battery of tests and questionnaires (“external measures”). Further, half of subjects receive an intervention, which consists of a simple financial education lesson to help them improve their strategy. By comparing the degree of the intervention’s impact on subjects’ performance to their internal and external measures, we aim to identify the characteristics and groups most and least equipped to benefit from such financial-education guidance for dealing with inflation. Taken together, these results and correlations offer the foundation for more precise behavioral modeling and can facilitate the development of more targeted and behaviorally effective guidance for specific populations—to help them protect themselves from inflation.
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