Voting at home is associated with lower cortisol than voting at the polls

Jayme Neiman; Karl Giuseffi; Kevin Smith; Jeffrey French; Israel Waismel-Manor; John Hibbing

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135289

Voting at home is associated with lower cortisol than voting at the polls

Jayme Neiman, Karl Giuseffi, Kevin Smith, Jeffrey French, Israel Waismel-Manor, John Hibbing

School of Political Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Previous research finds that voting is a socially stressful activity associated with increases in cortisol levels. Here we extend this research by investigating whether different voting modalities have differential effects on the stress response to voting. Results from a field experiment conducted during the 2012 presidential elections strongly suggest that traditional "at the polls" voting is more stressful, as measured by increases in cortisol levels, than voting at home by mail-in ballot or engaging in comparable non-political social activities. These findings imply that increased low-stress voting options such as mail-in ballots may increase political participation among individuals who are sensitive to social stressors.

Original language	English
Article number	e0135289
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	10
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135289
State	Published - 3 Sep 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Neiman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1371/journal.pone.0135289

Cite this

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Voting at home is associated with lower cortisol than voting at the polls

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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