Experiment on the Divergence in Consumer and Voting Behavior with Application to Cage Vs. Cage-free Eggs

Abstract

A majority of voters in several states have voted in favor of eliminating certain poultry and livestock products from being available in the market place. At the same time, the majority of consumers in these states regularly purchase products that employ such production practices. This research examines why individuals sometimes choose to vote in favor of ballot initiatives which result in banning products they regularly purchase, a phenomenon called the vote-buy gap. In order to detect and determine the vote-buy gap, a real-food, real-money experiment was conducted. Respondents first made a shopping choice between snack options, some of which included eggs from caged hens as an ingredient. After the snack selection was made, participants then voted on a proposition to ban snack options that included shelled eggs from caged hens. Results support the Vote-Buy Gap Hypothesis and indicate that the vote-buy gap was present in the experiment: in the control treatment approximately 80% of the individuals who chose snacks with caged eggs in their shopping decision also voted in favor of banning snacks with cage eggs. This experiment is the first to replicate the vote-buy gap in an experimental lab setting. A number of alternative treatments were employed to test several other hypotheses related to the underlying causes of the vote-buy gap, but the data failed to provide strong support for any of the hypotheses.