Persistence in voting
If voting is a fresh cost-benefit calculation each time, as in Riker and Ordeshook (1968), the paradox of voting arises, yet in practice the same people tend to vote election after election. Gerber, Green and Shachar (2003) showed that people randomly contacted to encourage turnout voted more not only in that election but also in the next, arguing that the experience of voting itself increases future voting.
Young adulthood and habit formation
Plutzer (2002) argued that choices made when people first become eligible persist through inertia, with parental resources and political context shaping early habits. This connects to the resource and motivation focus of the civic voluntarism model. Using birthdays to compare people just above and below the voting age, Meredith (2009) gave causal evidence that a single opportunity to vote raises later turnout. Fowler (2006) explained this with a behavioral model.
The nature of habit and policy implications
Drawing on the psychology of habit, Aldrich, Montgomery and Wood (2011) showed that behavior repeated in the same place and time can continue automatically without conscious deliberation. Synthesizing several experiments, Coppock and Green (2016) reported that the habit effect is real but varies in size by election type. The theory supports the idea that mobilization of young voters or compulsory voting may have long-term effects.
FAQ
- What is habitual voting in simple terms?
- The idea that people who have voted once are more likely to vote next time, and with repetition voting becomes a habit.
- Why does voting in young adulthood matter?
- Whether people vote in their first few elections tends to harden into a habit that shapes lifelong turnout.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Gerber, A. S., Green, D. P., & Shachar, R. (2003). Voting may be habit-forming: Evidence from a randomized field experiment. American Journal of Political Science, 47(3), 540–550. Field-experimental evidence.
- Plutzer, E. (2002). Becoming a habitual voter: Inertia, resources, and growth in young adulthood. American Political Science Review, 96(1), 41–56. Habit formation in young adulthood.
- Fowler, J. H. (2006). Habitual voting and behavioral turnout. The Journal of Politics, 68(2), 335–344. A behavioral model of turnout.
- Meredith, M. (2009). Persistence in political participation. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 4(3), 187–209. Regression discontinuity evidence.
- Aldrich, J. H., Montgomery, J. M., & Wood, W. (2011). Turnout as a habit. Political Behavior, 33(4), 535–563. Psychology of habit applied.
- Coppock, A., & Green, D. P. (2016). Is voting habit forming? New evidence from experiments and regression discontinuities. American Journal of Political Science, 60(4), 1044–1062. Re-examining the habit effect.
- Riker, W. H., & Ordeshook, P. C. (1968). A theory of the calculus of voting. American Political Science Review, 62(1), 25–42. The rational choice benchmark.