Conjoint analysis of voting behaviour : a stated preference experiment employing valence and ideology attributes of candidates

We employ conjoint analysis to understand how voters make decisions when faced with multi-dimensional choices. Respondents are asked to choose between candidates that vary along three valence (education, income and honesty) and two ideological attributes (attitudes toward tax and spending and the rights of same-sex couples). We have administered the conjoint analysis experiment to 186 subjects, resulting in 5022 votes over pair-wise compared candidates. Our results indicate that education and integrity - but not income - indeed behave like valence issues where voters prefer more to less. They also show that voters’ preference takes the competency form. The marginal impact of valued valence attributes is conditional on the candidate’s positions on policy. It is higher where those positions are closer to those of respondents. Finally, when voters are faced with a stark choice between candidate holding different policy views, they are ready to trade a higher valence candidate, with whom they do not share policy views, with a lower valence one with whom they share such views.