Pro-social preferences and the paradox of voting
利用挪威人口数据，研究发现亲社会动机越强的人，其投票率受选民规模影响越小，从而解释了大规模选举中人们为何仍会投票。
Why do people vote in large elections? Theoretical arguments to resolve this paradox of voting often emphasize individuals’ pro-social motivations, which make turnout decisions less sensitive to the pivot probability. Using Norwegian population-wide register data, we test this argument by leveraging population-size shocks from inter-municipal mobility and proxying pro-social motivations via individuals’ charitable donations. We find that increasing electorate size widens the turnout gap between more/less pro-social individuals, and that turnout of pro-social individuals responds less to population-size shocks. Simulated municipality-level pivot probabilities suggest the (expected) probability of influencing election outcomes as a driving force behind these findings. • Theory suggests pro-social motives can resolve the paradox of voting in large-scale elections. • We test this argument using inter-municipal mobility to identify individual-level electorate size shocks. • Individuals’ charitable donations proxy pro-social motivations. • We find that the turnout gap between pro-social and self-interested voters widens with electorate size. • Simulations suggest the probability of influencing the election as a driving force behind these findings.