Issue: 2011/Vol.21/No.3-4, Pages 21-34

COGNITIVE PROPERTIES OF APPROVAL VOTING. AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH

Krzysztof Przybyszewski, Monika Rzeska, Honorata Sosnowska

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Cite as: K. Przybyszewski, M. Rzeska, H. Sosnowska. Cognitive properties of approval voting. An experimental approach. Operations Research and Decisions 2011: 21(3-4), 21-34. DOI 10.5277/ord1203-0402

Abstract
The paper summarizes two series of experiments demonstrating the cognitive properties of ap- proval voting. The former series is devoted to mental processes induced in decision makers who use the method of approval voting. Based on cognitive effort, the use of choice strategies is presented in this paper. The observations of respondents show that most of them use relatively effortless strategy of eliminating alternatives and attributes. Few respondents use more sophisticated methods. The other series of experiments analyses the number of alternatives chosen in approval voting. It appears that the average number is not constant, even for similar votes but it depends on the subject of voting. The number of chosen alternatives and the subjective significance of the scope of voting are negatively or positively correlated in the case of special votes. The analyzed experiments show that the cognitive properties of approval voting have a diverse structure.

Keywords: experiments, approval voting, cognitive properties

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