Analysis of California propositions: An experiment in the empirical revelation of shared mental models

This paper uses factor analysis to analyze Californians’ voting on 12 propositions considered during the 2008 general election. The result is to create quantitative representations of shared mental models. After generating two county-level shared mental model indices, the indices are further examined to explain their variation across counties and to evaluated their performance as substitutes for previous presidential voting as an independent variable in a presidential voting model.

► Experiments with quantification of shared mental models. ► Creates an ECON and SOCIAL mental model indices at the county level for California. ► Compares created indices to past presidential voting as proxies for shared mental models. ► Indices are not clearly superior when compared to past presidential voting but… ► The indices clearly capture something different than partisanship alone, further research needed.