| ID | 159501 |
| Title Proper | Nonrepresentative representatives |
| Other Title Information | an experimental study of the decision making of elected politicians |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | SHEFFER, LIOR |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | A considerable body of work in political science is built upon the assumption that politicians are more purposive, strategic decision makers than the citizens who elect them. At the same time, other work suggests that the personality profiles of office seekers and the environment they operate in systematically amplifies certain choice anomalies. These contrasting perspectives persist absent direct evidence on the reasoning characteristics of representatives. We address this gap by administering experimental decision tasks to incumbents in Belgium, Canada, and Israel. We demonstrate that politicians are as or more subject to common choice anomalies when compared to nonpoliticians: they exhibit a stronger tendency to escalate commitment when facing sunk costs, they adhere more to policy choices that are presented as the status-quo, their risk calculus is strongly subject to framing effects, and they exhibit distinct future time discounting preferences. This has obvious implications for our understanding of decision making by elected politicians. |
| `In' analytical Note | American Political Science Review Vol. 112, No.2; May 2018: p.302-321 |
| Journal Source | American Political Science Review 2018-04 112, 2 |
| Key Words | Decision Making ; Nonrepresentative Representatives ; Elected Politicians |