Overreporting of voting participation as a function of identity

This paper proposes an explanation of the overreporting of voting participation based in Stryker's identity theory (1980) S.StrykerSymbolic interactionism: A social structural version1980Blackburn PressCaldwell, NJ [Google Scholar], integrating the social pressure approach of Bernstein, Chadha, and Montjoy (2001) R.BernsteinA.ChadhaR.MontjoyOverreporting voting: Why it happens and why it mattersPublic Opinion Quarterly65120012244[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. A set of logistic regression models is estimated to predict the propensity to overreport using indicators of extensive and intensive commitments to a political identity. Models are tested using vote verification data from five years of the American National Election Studies (1978, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1990). Identity commitments are strongly predictive of overreporting and conventional understandings of social desirability fail to predict overreporting. Findings suggest that a conceptualization of self-reported voting as a measure of identity may provide a better explanation for why respondents overreport their voting in terms of extensive and intensive commitments to a political identity.