Date of Award

3-26-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Politics and Government: Political Science

First Advisor

Kerri Milita

Abstract

This study examines the issue of protest voting in American elections. Negative information environments have been shown to significantly shape an individual’s propensity to cast a protest vote (i.e. vote for a minor party, write-in candidate, or abstain from voting on a particular race). However, I argue that an individual's trust in government will condition the effect of a negative information environment on the likelihood that he or she will cast a protest vote. Using an online survey experiment conducted in October 2019, I test the hypothesis that individuals with low trust in government will be highly susceptible to negative information about their preferred candidate and will be more likely to protest vote in response than those with high trust in government.

Comments

Imported from ProQuest Stringer_ilstu_0092N_11669.pdf

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2020.Stringer.R

Page Count

38

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