Uso delle euristiche nella scelta elettorale: un approccio basato sulla simulazione della decisione di voto

Designed by the American social psychologists Richard Lau and David Redlawsk, the Dynamic Process-Tracing Environment is a tool which simulates an election campaign and ensuing voter choice. This article describes its implementation in the Italian context. The simulation involves sitting participants in front of a computer screen which displays a continuous flow of boxes containing information on four candidates in a hypothetical campaign for the election of a mayor. The participant chooses which information to access before deciding how to vote. Analysis of the type of information accessed, the political orientation of the individual – as revealed through a preliminary questionnaire – and the voter’s final decision enables us to “trace” the strategy used by the subject in deciding. A sample of 800 voters, distributed throughout various areas of the country, took part in the simulation. The main purpose of this article is to illustrate the simulation technique used. In the concluding section, we present some results concerning the “heuristics” utilized in deciding and their connection with the personal characteristics (socio-demographic and political) of the participants.