Conclusion: Voting Advice Applications, Information, and Democracy

Abstract

Though the origins of VAAs developed from a normative social choice account of democracy as a contest between competing packages of policies that rational, egocentric utility maximizers choose between, the evidence presented in this volume suggests their effects are more transformative. Political life has become increasingly digitized. Paradoxically, there is more information available to voters than ever before, but this increases the incentives for voters to be rationally ignorant given the high information costs involved in evaluating competing claims made by parties and candidates.