COULD CITIZENS VOTE AGAINST? REGULATORY FOCUS ON PROMOTION VS. PREVENTION AND VOTING ACTIVITY

The problem of many democratic countries, especially Poland, is the low voting turnout. One of the potential reasons is a way of voting: only voting 'for' a party or a candidate is allowed. Possibly, the introduction of voting 'against' could prompt many voters to act. The concept of regulatory focus (Higgins 1998) suggests that people focused on prevention should vote against eagerly. The present article describes two studies conducted to verify that hypothesis. In the first study more than 2/3 of participants declared that they would vote more eagerly when voting for and against would be allowed. The second study shows that the 'pro and anti' formula is especially attractive for participants characterized by regulatory focus on prevention.