RATIONAL VOTERS WHO DON’T PAY ATTENTION (COMMENT).

RATIONAL VOTERS WHO DON’T PAY ATTENTION (COMMENT). One of the arguments that voters are irrational is that so many of them do badly on surveys which test their knowledge of political events. I once heard Kathryn Hall Jamieson on NPR arguing that there is a group of voters that pays attention to politics for only a short period of time every two or four years. They determine how they will vote, and afterwards ignore the news. She could identify a material percentage of voters (I have a vague memory of about ten per cent) who pay attention to politics and make up their minds during the conventions–and then stop paying attention. ” Here is a link which reports on a speech by Charles Cook where Cook said that, “People who follow politics learned a lot about the 2008 candidates at the beginning of campaigns and others learn later. Many, Cook said, won’t start paying attention until after the 2008 World Series.” (link via Kausfiles). It can be rational for a voter to pay attention to politics for only ten days every four years.