Gur Huberman writes, regarding the Edlin, Gelman, and Kaplan article in The Economist’s Voice:

Can you extend the charity/rationality argument to explain why people in non battleground sates (e.g., NY) vote? Even if charity motivation is a partial explanation for voting, an implication would be that voter turnout is higher in battleground states, other things being equal. However, I am afraid that this prediction is consistent with many other explanations of why people vote.

Another issue that has intrigued me for years: I am under the impression that voter turnout is lower in local elections and in midterm elections. In midterm elections there’s less at stake, so your charity story seems to cover that. But, selfishly speaking, it may well be that who my mayor is may have a stronger impact on my life than who my president is. (Quantifying this last statement is challenging.) If so, why am I more likely to vote in a presidential election than in a mayoral one? Your charity theory may help answer the question.

My reply

1. I think there are many reasons for voting, and in NY it’s not particularly rational for instrumental reasons.

2, In our article a couple years ago in the journal Rationality and Society, Edlin, Kaplan, and I discuss the coexistence of many different models for voting. For example, there is the “psychological” model that we are more likely to vote in an election that more people are talking about. People are more likely to talk about an election that is close and that is viewed as important. So the psychological and economic/rational explanation coincide in this way. (Similarly, you could consider psychological or economic rationales for purchases. For example, if I buy something on sale, I’m economically motivated to save money and psychologically motivated because of the pleasure in “getting a deal.”) These two things reinforce each other; I see them as parallel, not competing, explanations.

3. Your mayor may have more of an impact on _your_ life, but total impact is proportional to total #people affected. And that doesn’t even get into foreign policy (not an issue for local politics unless you happen to live in, say, Berkeley, California).