Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Close Elections And Cognitive Engagement, Cindy Kam, Stephen Utych

Stephen Utych

Existing research has focused primarily on the extent to which close elections affect turnout. While turnout is important, campaigns can also serve a social function by cultivating cognitive engagement. This article thus focuses on the extent to which close elections stimulate cognitive engagement among citizens. Observational data analysis suggests that close elections have a positive effect on cognitive engagement in senate campaigns. Experimental data analysis suggests that when close-election reminders appear in campaign discourse, citizens respond with greater cognitive engagement, as measured by a cognitive-response task and an information-seeking task. When reminded that a race is close, subjects think more …