Voter Decision Making 1972 and 1974

A panel study of decision making by Ohio voters found differences between the 1972 and 1974 general election campaigns in terms of attributes the voters used to choose candidates, when they chose, and how difficult their choices were to make. The study explored relations between.these differences and found variations between the campaigns in voters' attention to and discussion of the campaigns, and in their uses of mass media. Difficulty of decision making in particular was highly associated with certain campaign information-seeking behaviors, suggesting that mass media and other political information sources may be used in specific ways by voters experiencing difficulty.