Evaluating young adult voter decision-making involvement within a compulsory political system

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to specifically focus on the lower-involvement young adult voters within the Australian compulsory voting context. It explores voters’ political decision-making by considering the influence of the consumer behaviour theory of involvement.

Design/methodology/approach

A thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the interviews within the two research questions: information seeking and decision-making.

Findings

Key themes within information seeking are the reach of the information available, the frequency of the information presented, the creativity of the message and one-way versus two-way communication. Key themes within evaluation are promise keeping/trust, achievements or performance and policies. Lower-involvement decision-making has the potential to be a habitual, limited evaluation decision. However, issues of trust, performance and policies may encourage evaluation, thereby reducing the chances of habitually voting for the same party as before.

Practical implications

This new area of research has implications for the application of marketing for organisations and political marketing theory. Considering voting decision-making as a lower-involvement decision has implications for assisting the creation and adaptation of strategies to focus on this group of the population.

Originality/value

The compulsory voting environment creates a unique situation to study lower-involvement decision-making, as these young adults are less likely to opt out of the voting process. Previous research in political marketing has not specifically explored the application of involvement to young adult voting within a compulsory voting environment.

Citation

Winchester, T., Hall, J. and Binney, W. (2015), "Evaluating young adult voter decision-making involvement within a compulsory political system", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 252-277. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-09-2013-0061