Abstract
College students (N = 102) were given one of two state question ballots that were equivalent in content but differed in readability. Half the participants received the original state questions on the November 1984 Oklahoma ballot (with a mean grade-reading level of 9.7). The other subjects received rewritten versions of the state questions (with a mean grade-reading level of 5.8). The group reading the revised state questions was significantly more likely to vote negatively than the group given the less readable ballot. This finding suggests the following election strategies: proponents of a state question should strive for obscure language on the ballot, while opponents of a state question should strive for simplified language.
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A preliminary report based on this research was presented at an Oklahoma Psychological Association research conference, Oklahoma City, April 1987. We thank C. Jack Denton for his technical assistance and two anonymous reviewers for comments on a draft of this article.
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Michalski, K.B., Guile, M.N. Readability of simulated state question ballots affects voting behavior. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 28, 239–240 (1990). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334014
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334014