Economics Area

In a representative democracy, citizens do not vote directly over assemblies but instead for individual candidates, who then constitute the assembly that enacts the legislative program. This complicates our ability to de\u85ne what is meant by sincere voting, which can be divided into two concepts: expressive and simple voting. We present the results of an experimental study of voting over candidates in assemblies in which the predictions of expressive and simple voting diverge. We \u85nd that subjects predominantly vote simply rather than expressively. However, we nd that when the voting situation is complex either in that voters have heterogeneous preferences or the simple voting strategy involves voting for a least preferred candidate instead of a highly preferred candidate, voters are more attracted to expressive voting. Hence, signi\u85cant simple voting occurs, but the extent is highly dependent on the voting situation.