ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the use of expressed and revealed preference questions for political action. The chapter reviews the various ways of measuring expressed preferences for action and then discuss difficulties that arise when relying upon expressed preferences alone. It offers a compromise between the two approaches and discusses how small modifications in experimental design may strengthen the understanding of the relationship between political communication and political behavior. The chapter discusses the logic of two types of measures of behavioral intent: costs for preferences and scripts. In the majority of experimental studies that ask individuals to express their preferences for political action, this expression of preferences is costless. To consider whether media projections of presidential election outcomes in Eastern Time zone states affect voter turnout in Western time zone states, Marco Battaglini, Rebecca Morton, and Thomas Palfrey-2007 designed an experiment that required participants to pay a set fee for the opportunity to vote.
