ABSTRACT
In 1995, Paul Slovic, a well-known researcher in behavioural decision-making, argued that preferences, rather than being reflected in the results of a decision-making process, are in fact constructed in that same process. The data that Slovic assembles in his article, as well as a wide range of empirical results produced since that time, demonstrate that preferences can be manipulated by a wide variety of arguably irrelevant factors such as an implicit suggestion about the preferences of others similar to ourselves. Voting is the cornerstone of the democratic process, and voting is also a clear instance of expressed – and thus constructed – preference. Political advertising has long been used to manipulate voter preferences. Micro-targeting, involving the collection and use of large amounts of personal information to develop and direct individualised political messaging presents a new privacy-related threat to independent voter choice – a threat that leverages personal information to influence choice. This paper explores the consequences of the individualised, highly selective, and manipulated information environment on voter preferences, examining the ways in which personal profiling can be used to manipulate voter preferences and thus undermine voter autonomy.
