Young adult voting decision-making: Studying the effect of usage from a consumer behaviour perspective

• A study which addresses the call to focus on the voter as consumer.
• We focus on the low-involvement young adult Australian voter.
• We used ANOVA/MANOVA to analyse how previous behaviour (or usage of the political party) affects the decision-making process.
• Usage affects the key factors of commitment to voting, stability, information seeking, and satisfaction with voting choice.
• A call for usage to be included in future studies is presented.

Chinese abtract年轻成年人的投票决策：从消费者行为角度的影响进行研究本文旨在研究消费者行为理论对澳大利亚年轻成年人在投票决策时的应用。以前关于决策制定的研究发现，主观知识结构、参与度、资讯寻找行为、满意度、信心以及稳定性是投票决策的关键因素。本研究探索这些因素与应用消费者行为概念之间存在的关系。有一种新概念叫做“投票责任，也应被列入澳大利亚强制性投票的考虑范围。本文收集的抽样数据来自257名年龄介乎18至25岁之间的澳大利亚公民。探索性因素分析产生九个因素，同时使用MANOVA和ANOVA对三个应用[消费者行为概念]的小组进行测试，研究其不同之处。三个小组分别为：自发应用、非自发应用，以及从未应用组别。结果表明应用[消费者行为概念]对投票决策当中的资讯寻找、投票承诺、对投票选项的满意度以及稳定性具有重大影响。因此，应用[消费者行为概念]是投票人投票时的关键依据，在将来的相关研究中需要包括这一选项。

This study investigates the application of consumer behaviour theory to young Australian adults’ voting decision-making. Previous decision-making studies identified constructs of subjective knowledge, involvement, information seeking, satisfaction, confidence, and stability as key factors in voting decision-making. This research tests the relationship that these factors have with the consumer behaviour concept of usage. A new concept, commitment to vote, is also considered for Australia’s compulsory voting context. Data were gathered from a sample of 257 Australian citizens between the ages of 18 and 25. Exploratory factor analysis produced nine factors, and MANOVA and ANOVA were used to test the differences between three usage groups: voluntary users, involuntary users, and never trieds. The results illustrate that usage has a significant influence on information seeking, commitment to voting, satisfaction with voting choice, and stability in voting decision-making. Therefore, usage is a key element in voter decision-making and needs to be included in future studies.