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Understanding the emotional act of voting

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To understand voting behaviour, we must consider voters' emotions and their interaction with electoral arrangements and the complex functions elections serve in democracies. We can then optimize voting via electoral ergonomics — the design of electoral arrangements that consider voters' bodies and minds.

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Figure 1: Vote for far right parties among polling station and postal voters by age group in the 2010 UK general elections.
Figure 2: How voting at a polling station or on the internet affects young people's emotions during their first vote.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael Bruter and Sarah Harrison direct the ECREP initiative at the London School of Economics, London WC2A 2AE, UK.,

    Michael Bruter & Sarah Harrison

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  1. Michael Bruter
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  2. Sarah Harrison
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Correspondence to Michael Bruter.

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Bruter, M., Harrison, S. Understanding the emotional act of voting. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0024 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0024

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0024

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