Italian general elections of 2006 and 2008: Testing the direct and indirect impact of implicit and explicit attitudes on voting behaviour

Two studies were conducted during the Italian General Elections of 2006 (N = 179) and 2008 (N = 607), to investigate the relationships among implicit and explicit attitudes, voting intention and voting behaviour. Several structural equation models that included direct and indirect effect of implicit and explicit attitudes toward political objects (coalitions and leaders) on voting intention and behaviour were executed to test a prediction model of political preferences and voting behaviour. Notwithstanding some differences, the results of the two studies showed that (i) the implicit evaluations of political objects are more differentiated than the explicit ones; (ii) that implicit attitudes contribute in a specific and additive way to determine the voting intention and behaviour, and (iii) that the effect of the implicit attitude is also mediated by the explicit attitudes. Findings are discussed in the frame of dual cognition models and in the light of the peculiar political scenarios of the considered electoral process