Task-Value Intervention Effects on Voting Attitudes, Intentions, and Behaviors in College Students

• In Event: Looking Beyond Achievement Behaviors in Motivation Research: Additional Antecedents and Consequences

Abstract

Motivation to vote is an important topic of study because a functioning democracy is dependent on an informed citizenry of active voters, and a goal of education is to promote civic responsibility. The purpose of this three-study randomized experimental investigation was to investigate the effects of a brief motivational intervention on preservice teachers’ attitudes, intentions, and behaviors towards voting. Results provided some support that a task-value intervention may induce positive attitudes and intentions toward voting, and that voting attitudes and intentions predict voting behavior. There were no intervention effects on voting behavior. This investigation advances research on attitude-change in educational contexts, with emphasis on online interventions that educators could implement in their courses to help students explore attitudes towards voting.

Authors

• Jonathan Lollar, Texas State University
  Presenting Author

• Taylor W. Acee, Texas State University
  Presenting Author