Authors

• Moring, Tom (University of Helsinki)
• Gallup Finland

Keywords

European Parliament elections, advertising, election campaigns, political support, voting, voting behaviour

Abstract

The survey studied election advertising in the Finnish European Parliamentary elections, and factors affecting voting behaviour. The survey was conducted as part of the "Changes in Finnish TV Election Campaigns" project. The respondents were asked whether they had seen election advertisements and television advertising, and if they had, for which party. The respondents were asked to evaluate the advertisements. They were also asked if they had voted, and which party they had voted for in the European Parliamentary elections and in the previous parliamentary elections. In addition, the respondents were asked for which party's candidate they would vote if elections were held at the time of the survey, and at what stage the respondents had made the decision to vote. In this study, the aim was to canvass how important certain issues were in determining the respondents' voting decisions, and whether the voting decision was more determined by the candidate's party or the candidate him/herself. Information sources used to support the respondents' voting decisions were surveyed. Non-voters were asked the reason for abstaining.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age group, year of birth, marital status, mother tongue, basic education, vocational education, working hours, industry of employment, employer type, trade union membership, household composition, economic activity of the household head, number of children aged under 21, household gross income, the respondent's self-perceived social class, political left-right self-placement, and which political party the respondent had voted for in the elections.