‘Modi’-fied Beliefs: Assessing Cognitive Dissonance in Populist Voting Behaviour in India

Abstract

Voting is a multifaceted decision that involves choosing a leader/party in spite of not agreeing with all that they represent. How then do voters deal with the aspects that they do not like? Using a cognitive dissonance approach, this research looks to study how educated secular voters who vote for the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi in India reduce the dissonance arising out of the communal repercussions of their vote. I find that voters both adjust their conceptions of secularism and their perceptions of communalism to justify their vote and reduce dissonance. This can have significant repercussions on democracy as voters who adjust their preferences become citizens who hold modified standards of accountability. This paper presents novel insights into voter decision-making, especially on how they may navigate between aspects they like and those they may not when taking voting decisions. It also provides rich patterns of political psychology for other researchers to explore.

Keywords:

• Cognitive dissonance
• India
• media
• Modi
• populism
• voting behaviour

Acknowledgements

Gratitude is due to several people for critical comments on the multi-staged construction and evolution of this paper. Especially Dr. Shandana Khan Mohmand, Dr. Mick Moore, Dr. Miguel Loureiro, Dr. Priya Chacko and two anonymous reviewers for shaping this into its current form.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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