Turnout as a Habit 3

7 Abstract It is conventional to speak of voting as ‘‘habitual.’’ But what does this 8 mean? In psychology, habits are cognitive associations between repeated responses 9 and stable features of the performance context. Thus, ‘‘turnout habit’’ is best 10 measured by an index of repeated behavior and a consistent performance setting. 11 Once habit associations form, the response can be cued even in the absence of 12 supporting beliefs and motivations. Therefore, variables that form part of the 13 standard cognitive-based accounts of turnout should be more weakly related to 14 turnout among those with a strong habit. We draw evidence from a large array of 15 ANES surveys to test these hypotheses and find strong support. 16 17